Thirteen total service breaks in a match is generally not a recipe for success for Hubert Hurkacz, and sure enough the big-serving Pole came up on the short end of his quarterfinal contest against Tommy Paul at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Thursday.
Paul came back from a break down in the third set to defeat Hurkacz 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 and book a spot in his third Masters 1000 semifinal after two hours and 43 minutes. The 16th-ranked American broke Hurkacz a hard-to-believe seven times while generating 13 break chances.
“I started off pretty well, but things really got away from me there in the second set, and at the beginning of the third,” Paul reflected. “I just had to stick around, fake a little energy to get myself going there in the third. I started looking for my forehand more, started hitting it bigger, and playing with a little bit more intensity. That was probably the key for me in the end.”
“My game plan coming in was, ‘I’ve got to get into as many of his service games as possible to try and get a couple of breaks.’ From that aspect I did very well today, but in my next match I’m probably going to focus on holding serve a little bit more.”
The 26-year-old, who upset Daniil Medvedev in the previous round, awaits either Stefanos Tsitsipas or Nicolas Jarry on semifinal Friday.
nice one, TP