Spanish 31-year-old Pablo Carreno Busta won his maiden ATP Master’s 1000 title in Montreal. Pablo defeated Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz in the final 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 to claim his 7th tour-level title. He was brilliant throughout the week. He progressed in the tournament defeating Matteo Berrettini and Jannik Sinner in straight sets.
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Pablo lost the first set after dropping a serve. Hubert was nice on the serve with more first serve % and win %. However, the Spaniard bounced back in the second set with an early break on a loose service game from Hubert. The set saw no other breakpoints as Busta won it with an unreturned serve.
Hubert was showing signs of danger in the opening phase of the third set. However, punishing groundstrokes from Pablo earned him a crucial break at 2-1. The moment of the match came however at 3-2 when Pablo showed exquisite court coverage to put Hubert’s lob back on the court with a desperate stab.
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The volley turned out to be tough for Hubert who played it to Pablo as the latter returned to position. Spaniard then produced a finale with a flying backhand-volley winner which won him the point and lead Hurkacz to throw his racket in frustration.
The winning moment from Pablo Carreno and stats
Carreno finished the match in style by converting his third breakpoint opportunity. He moved up 9 places in the live ATP ranking to 14th place. The win also soared him up to 11th place in the race to Turin. Pablo handed Hurkacz his first defeat in 6 tour-level finals.
Hubert won 4 three setters till the final but wasn’t able to repeat the feat. Pablo on the other hand did not drop a set till the final. And thus was more fresh and ready. Playing and losing in a late-night doubles semifinals match also did not help Hubert.
Reactions from players
“It’s an amazing feeling to be a Masters 1000 winner,” he said post-match. “It’s the best title of my career for sure and I don’t know how I’m feeling in this moment.
“I know that during all the week we worked very hard, also the weeks before. It’s very important to be very positive all the time. It’s not my best season this year. I lost some matches that probably other seasons I didn’t lose, but I just tried to continue believing in my team, in myself and in my game.”
“I lost the first set, just one break, but you know when you play against these kinds of players who have a really good serve it’s really tough to be there,” he assessed. “But I just continued believing because I know that I was playing better and better. I tried to be aggressive with my serves and I could make two breaks, enough to be a winner.”
Pablo Carreno Busta will next play in the Cincinnati Masters 1000 opening round against M. Kecmanovic while Hubert Hurkacz will face John Isner.
