WINSTON-SALEM, August 25, 2019
Hubert Hurkacz is the champion of the Winston-Salem Open held at the Wake Forest University. The 22-year-old defeated top seed Benoit Paire 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in Saturday’s singles final. Hurkacz became the first Pole to capture a tour-level crown since Wojtek Fibak’s WCT Chicago title run in 1982.
The Wroclaw native withstood 10 aces breaking his opponent’s serve five times to prevail after two hours and nine minutes.
Achievement 🔓 unlocked! 🙌@HubertHurkacz captures his first ATP title with a 6-3 3-6 6-3 triumph over Benoit Paire. #WSOpen pic.twitter.com/t95JfwFSgJ
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) August 24, 2019
“That is a lot of time [without a Polish champion]. I am so glad that I have been able to win an ATP Tour event,” said Hurkacz, quoted by the ATP Tour website. “I hope many more guys will join me soon and that I will win some more. It means a lot to me and I am glad that I won this tournament here.”
Hurkacz becomes the 14th first-time champion on the ATP Tour in 2019 and takes away from North Carolina $96,505 in prize money as well as 250 ATP Ranking points.
“It is a huge win for me today. Benoit is an amazing player so it is a really great win for me,” said Hurkacz, who will next take on Jeremy Chardy in the first round of the US Open. “[It was a] great match. I had to fight a lot but I am so excited that I lifted my first trophy here.”
Kubot/Melo win fifth team title, first of the season
On Friday, Lukasz Kubot from Poland and Brazilian Marcelo Melo clinched the doubles title. The top seeds edged past US-American wild card entries Nicolas Monroe and Tennys Sandgren 6-7(6), 6-1, 10-3. The encounter lasted one hour and 28 minutes.
“We played very good since the first match. We’re of course very happy with the title. We were looking for this title during the year, and we missed a couple opportunities along the way. But we’re so happy to play as we played this tournament,” Melo said.
“I think the level was very high today,” Kubot added. “We used our chances. We had a great four matches here.”
They receive 250 ATP Doubles Rankings points and split $40,600 in prize money.
