For obvious reasons, he has lived in the shadow of a giant like Rafa Nadal and in recent months he has been overtaken by the phenomenon Carlos Alcaraz, but Pablo Carreño, at 31, has known how to wait, following his path with perseverance and work, and finally this Sunday he caught his moment after beating Hubert Hurkacz in Montreal in his first final of a Masters 1,000. The Pole, who had already won a tournament of this category in Miami and beat the Spaniard in the final in Metz, succumbed in three sets (3-6, 6-3 and 6-3) against the Asturian, which culminated a great week , with a relentless tennis and full of confidence. "I don't know how to feel right now, it was the best win of my career," he said excitedly.
The Asturian's initial plan was to slow down the exchanges to counteract the rival's power and try to survive the rest, a feat in the face of the barrage of cannon fire. Carreño had already left ogres like Berrettini and Sinner behind and had not dropped a set until the semifinal. In the title match he started in the same line, without notable mistakes, but in the first set he ran into a player with an unapproachable service on fast court.
The Pole's second serves were the crack through which Gijón's player tried to sneak in and in that scenario a surprisingly effective Hurkacz was found from the bottom and resolute in the net, which he climbed repeatedly. To make matters worse, when Carreño looked at the break option, his rival activated the ace lever again. The strategy was not working and the Spaniard collapsed in the sixth game, where he conceded the first break. With the score in favor, Hurkacz took refuge in his serve until he won the first set, which he closed with the sixth direct serve of the set.
With no room for error, Carreño played openly, challenging the player from Wroclaw with a more direct and aggressive game. He stepped forward, more focused on exploiting his virtues than damaging his opponent's. A double fault from the start in the second game was the invitation for the Spaniard to believe in his possibilities and he took advantage of the second serves to get a huge loot: a break always very expensive against a slugger.
Carreño linked the best minutes of the duel, especially with his service, with which he was impregnable. He took the match to the third set giving up five points on his serve, in addition to adding eleven winners in the set and committing only three unforced errors.
Before starting the last challenge, the final one for the title, both took a break of almost eight minutes to organize their ideas off the track. Hurkacz, however, only built up tension and his game felt it in the third game, when he failed to handle his opponent's second break chance, the third of the match. He connected a good first, but Carreño put it on the court and the Pole rushed with a drop to the net. He paid for his mistake with the racket. The Pole increased the speed of his flat shots even more, but the Asturian did not shake his pulse at the most important moment of his career and closed the game to the rest against a Hurkacz who no longer trusted the power of the get out of it. Carreño can now put the Montreal Masters 1,000 trophy next to the bronze medal of the Tokyo Games
