Hubert Hurkacz shook Wimbledon with a straight-sets win over the mighty Roger Federer in the quarterfinals. The world No. 18 attributed the victory to belief in himself and trust in his tools.
Hurkacz arrived at the All England Club on a six-match losing streak dating back to Monte Carlo in April. The Pole had never been past the third round or defeated a top-10 player at a Grand Slam. His tennis started talking when he rallied from two-sets-to-one down against the second-seeded Daniil Medvedev in the round of sixteen.
In the semifinals on Friday, the 24-year-old will play the seventh-seeded Italian Matteo Berrettini, who took down his good friend Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-3, 5-7, 7-5, 6-3.
In the other semifinal, Canada’s Denis Shapovalov will take on the world No. 1 Novak Djokovic. Hurkacz, 6-feet-5-inch tall, lost to the 18-year-old Swiss Dominic Stephan Stricker, ranked 334, in his first outing at Stuttgart two weeks before the start of The Championships.
“In Stuttgart, Dominic played a good match,” Hurkacz said. “It was my first match on grass. I hadn’t played on grass in a while. So, coming into that match, I didn’t have much confidence, much grass-court game.
“After winning a couple of matches, I really gained confidence, gained momentum. I believed in myself a lot,” he added.
Hurkacz noted that finishing his match against Medvedev on Centre Court helped familiarize him to the storied facility which perhaps laid the foundation for his last-eight win.
“It helped me a lot, feeling the atmosphere, feeling the court there,” he said.
