“Would Be Even More Fun to Beat Him”: Hubert Hurkacz Rues Q/F Loss to Roger Federer at Indian Wells 2019

Published 04/10/2021, 2:02 PM EDT

Polish tennis star Hubert Hurkacz has opened up on his experience of playing Roger Federer at the Indian Wells Masters in 2019. In an interview with a Polish publication, Hurkacz was reminded of a remark that the 20-time Grand Slam champion had made about him after a sparring session in Shanghai.

“I trained with Hurkacz in Shanghai. He apologized to me every time he broke the ball. He’s a sweet boy,” Federer was quoted as saying.

To this, the Pole jogged back to his quarter-final loss to the Swiss at Indian Wells in 2019.

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Hubert Hurkacz says it was exciting to be competing with Roger Federer at Indian Wells

Hurkacz said though it was exciting to be competing with the champion at the highest level, he regrets not being able to make it even more memorable by winning the tie.

He went down 4-6, 4-6 in the last-eight tie.

“Roger is a tennis legend and it was fun to compete with him at a high level, but it would be even more fun to beat him,” the 24-year-old said.

Federer reached the tournament final, getting a direct walkover into the title clash following Rafael Nadal’s withdrawal, but fell at the last hurdle after losing to current World No.4 Dominic Thiem.

Hubert Hurcakz says he’s been on Tour long enough to not be overawed by top players

On whether he feels overwhelmed or overawed when it comes to playing the stalwarts, Hurkacz said he has been in the circuit long enough to be nervous going against the top players.

“I’ve been in the Tour for quite a while and I’m used to playing the biggest tournaments with the best players,” the Pole said.

(Quotes have been translated via Google)

The 6’ 5” Pole took down three top players to claim his biggest championship victory at the prestigious Miami Open this year.

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The 24-year-old upset current World No.5 Stefanos Tsitsipas and eightth-ranked Russian Andrey Rublev in two of his most prized wins back-to-back to set up a title clash with rising Italian star Jannik Sinner.

Though Sinner had his moments in the final, Hurkacz prevailed in straight sets to lift his third career Tour title and his first at a Masters 1000 event.

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The win propelled the soft-spoken Pole to N0.16 in singles rankings.

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Priyabrata Chowdhury is a tennis author for EssentiallySports. He has been a print journalist for a decade, producing news pages for leading national dailies such as the Hindustan Times and The New Indian Express. His passion for sports eventually drove him to tennis writing.

“Would Be Even More Fun to Beat Him”: Hubert Hurkacz Rues Q/F Loss to Roger Federer at Indian Wells 2019

Hubert Hurkacz says it was exciting to be competing with Roger Federer at Indian Wells

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Hubert Hurcakz says he’s been on Tour long enough to not be overawed by top players