Pablo Carreño wins his first Masters 1000 in Montreal

Masters 1000 Canada

- final - That's how it was

Hubert Hurkacz

633

Pablo Carreno Busta

366

Carreño hits him with a backhand in the final against the Polish Hurkacz.ANDRE PICHETTE (EFE)

It was not the year of Pablo Carreño, who played the final in Barcelona and reached the semifinals in Bastad, secondary tournaments (ATP 250) for the 23rd in the world.

He had a hard time getting into a rhythm, the ball didn't go far enough, his head didn't respond like his legs and a few times he went home early (first round at Wimbledon, Madrid and Roland Garros).

But everything changed this week in Montreal (Canada), where he stood for the first time in his career in the final of a Masters 1000. Opposite him was the Pole Hubert Hurkacz, number 10 in the ATP ranking and with whom he had already met twice —a win in Cincinnati and a loss in Metz, both last season—;

also to his history because in his record he had an ATP Tour 500 laurel (Hamburg) and five 250 (Winston-Salem and Moscow in 2016);

Estoril in 2017;

Chengdu in 2019 and Marbella in 2021).

To his happiness and glory, she won 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Hurkacz remembers those bombers of yesteryear like Ivanisevic, Ljubicic, Krajicek or more current ones like Isner and Raonic.

Tremendous balls of more than 220 km / h that sparked the ball and broke Carreño, unable to impose his tennis, always in tow because the Pole was brimming with skill and confidence, perhaps because all the finals he had played (5) had been livestock.

“No, no!” the man from Gijón shouted desperately after losing three points in a row, abandoned by his service, the one that had done so well during the tournament because until the semis he had not lost a single game on serve.

A 0-40 that shrank his arm and that catapulted Hurkacz, caught because he went up to the net to reduce gaps and for the rival to take risks.

Carreño did it, he threw the ball into the doubles hall and lost the serve, as well as the set with the passing of the games and the polemics of the Pole.

But this Carreño recalled the tennis player who marveled at the Beijing Games with the bronze and who in 2017 reached the semifinal of the US Open.

He knew that he would have his chances because it wouldn't be for tennis.

And it came to him as soon as the second set started, because with 1-0 he broke Hurkacz's serve, who suffered a terrible disconnection with a double fault and three unforced errors.

He did not make the same mistake again, but neither did Carreño on serve and the second set went to the Spaniard, who finished the points with right hands that whispered to the tape, deep and also with the intention of moving the Polish giant (1 .96 meters), a territory that he never liked.

Fist up, "yes!"

de Carreño and the final set.

Although Hurkacz's

followed one another —18 in the match—, Carreño maintained his aggressiveness with groundstrokes, charging the opponent's backhand and getting on the court to return services.

Enough to intimidate Hurkacz, who lost his service again at 1-1 and invented a horrible drop shot that stayed in the net so that the Pole threw his racket to the ground in a rage.

Momentum for Carreño who always kept it from him and who ended up achieving a final break to close the set and the match without suffering, his first Masters 1,000 of him the day it seemed that he had seven in his pocket.

It was a week in which he reconciled himself to his best tennis and in which he joins the Spanish tournament winners on the course: Nadal and Alcaraz (4), Bautista (2), Pedro Martínez and Albert Ramos (1).

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