Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz overcame a mid-match back injury on Wednesday to prevail on his debut at the Libema Open, advancing to the second round of the grass-court ATP 250 event with a hard-fought win. The fifth seed moved past Roberto Bautista Agut 7-6(2), 6-4, making the most of the medical timeouts at 4-3 and 5-4 in the second set to treat his lower back. He nonetheless fired 16 aces and won 90 percent (45/50) of points behind his first delivery, according to Infosys ATP Stats, during the one-hour, 38-minute match.
“It’s my first time here and I’m really loving it,” said Hurkacz, who improved to 4-3 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Bautista Agut. “It’s always nice to play on grass. Obviously, the end was a little bit tricky, but hopefully, I will be better tomorrow. [My back] hurts a bit, but I will do some work with the physio later.”
Hurkacz is competing in his first grass-court event since he was forced to retire from his second-round clash with Arthur Fils at Wimbledon last year. He underwent meniscus surgery on his right knee two weeks later. Hurkacz will next play qualifier Mark Lajal, who scored the biggest win of his career to defeat World No. 64 Laslo Djere 6-2, 6-4.
Lajal, the No. 195 player in the ATP Rankings, is just the second Estonian man to record a tour-level win on grass in the Open Era, joining Toomas Leius.
Gabriel Diallo booked his spot in the quarterfinals by saving two match points to defeat sixth seed Jordan Thompson 4-6, 6-1, 7-5. Thompson, a two-time ‘s-Hertogenbosch finalist, held consecutive match points on return at 5-4 in the final set, but Diallo held firm to win 13 of the final 16 points and seal a two-hour, eight-minute victory.
“I played some really good tennis, he’s a very tricky opponent on the grass, it’s a surface that suits him well,” said Diallo, who is now 2-2 in tour-level matches on grass. “I knew I had to be really sharp. I came really close to losing on my serve, but I managed to come up with some good points and carry that momentum.”
Diallo, who is up five spots to No. 50 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, will face third seed Karen Khachanov, who edged qualifier Mackenzie McDonald 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(4). The 29-year-old Khachanov trailed 1/3 in the deciding-set tie-break but produced a gutsy turnaround to reach his seventh tour-level quarter-final on grass, and first on the surface since Halle in 2022.
