Paris, France) – Now with only two spots left for the ATP Finals, after the classification of Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, the Polish Hubert Hurkacz remains firmly in the race and is still aiming for a place in Turin. This Thursday he took an important step by beating Argentine Francisco Cerúndolo in straight sets, with partials of 6/4 and 6/3, in 68 minutes of play.
Qualified for the quarter-finals of the Paris Masters 1000, the Pole will now face Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, who earlier also achieved an authoritative victory, beating Kazakh Alexander Bublik with a double 6/2 scored in just 67 minutes. Hurkacz will try to beat Dimitrov for the first time, as he lost the previous three duels.
Current ninth place in the season’s race, Hurkacz is the main candidate to surpass Holger Rune (8th) and Alexander Zverev (7th) in the fight for a place in the Finals. He is currently 340 points behind the German, who has already been eliminated from Paris, and just 25 points behind the Dane, who later faces Austrian Dominic Thiem in the round of 16.
Benefited by withdrawal of Italian Jannik Sinner, Australian Alex de Minaur is one of those racing on the outside, but at the moment he is 630 points away from the qualifying zone. Another one who has a remote chance is Russian Karen Khachanov, who is also in the quarterfinals in Paris, but who is 895 points away from eighth place, needing to be champion and still score a lot of points next week.
