Hubert Hurkacz’s crash at the Australian Open. He did not exist on the court!

(11th ATP) with a few problems advanced to the second round of the Australian Open. The Pole defeated the Belarusian Igor Gerasimov in four sets 6: 2, 7: 6 (7: 3), 6: 7 (5: 7), 6: 3. Hurkacz had 16 aces (5 rivals) and more winners (52-35) in the match. However, he made more unforced mistakes (65-54).

Hurkacz disaster

In the second round, the Pole faced (69th ATP). The 33-year-old left-handed Frenchman fought an exciting five-set match against Australian James Duckworth (49th ATP) in his first game. Mannarino was losing 1: 2 in sets, but he was able to make up for the losses and won 6: 4, 2: 6, 3: 6, 6: 2, 6: 1. The Frenchman achieved the best result at the Australian Open in 2018 and 2021. Then he was reaching the third round of the tournament. His greatest success in the Grand Slam tournament was the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2013, 2017-18.

The duel at the beginning of the match was balanced. With the score of 3: 3, Hurkacz was already losing 0:40 with his pass after three unforced mistakes. It seemed that the Pole would get out of the way, because he served twice and then won a beautiful, long (35 strokes) rally and brought him to balance. After a while, Mannarino attacked with a great return, and in the next action the Pole made another unforced mistake and was overcome. It was enough for the French to win the first set.

He was throwing a towel and a racket

At the beginning of the second game, Hurkacz looked nervous. First, he furiously threw the towel and said something to his cubicle. Then he waved towards the stands after failing to reach the Frenchman’s lobby. After an unsuccessful 2-0 lead for Mannarino, the Pole threw the racket and kicked the ball. Hurkacz also played badly at break-points. In the middle of the second set he was 0/8 efficient. He kept making a lot of unforced mistakes (29 after two sets), especially in the forehand. In the fourth game, at the rival’s service, he did not even use the 40: 0 lead. A moment later, the Pole lost as many as nine points in a row and it was already 1: 5. The French played inspired. He served and read the game great, ran to almost every ball. As if that was not enough, it still returnable very well.

Hurkacz made up for losses in a five-set match from 0: 2 only once in his career. Interestingly, it was in Melbourne. In 2020, he won this way with qualifier Austrian Dennis Novak 6: 7, 1: 6, 6: 2, 6: 3, 6: 4. Then, from the third set, he started to play much better.

It was similar now, but only in the first six balls of the game. The Pole was leading 1-0, 30-0 and stopped completely again. He lost his application twice in a row and it was 1: 4. Hurkacz was still fighting and finally, at the tenth chance, he broke Mannarino and reduced his losses to 3: 4. In addition, it was possible to get the impression that the Frenchman is a bit tired, because he was not so good on the court. But nothing could be more wrong, because after a while Mannarino returned to his excellent disposition, he won two games in a row and the whole match.

Hurkacz thus worsened his statistics in the Grand Slam tournaments. He was eliminated for the sixth time in the second round of a tournament of this rank. He was eliminated seven times in the first round, once in the third and once in the semi-finals.

– With one exception, Hubert and Grand Slam tournaments are not a good combination – Łukasz Jachimiak, a journalist at sport.pl wrote on Twitter.

Mannarino will face Russian Aslan Karacjeev (Russia, 15th ATP) or American Mackenzie McDonald (55th ATP) in the next round.