"I spent a lot of time in Florida" - Hurkacz cites familiarity for Miami success

Hubert Hurkacz moved to within two wins of retaining his Miami Open presented by Itau title on Thursday as he ended Daniil Medvedev’s World No. 1 bid in empathic fashion on Hard Rock Stadium.

In a tight quarter-final battle, the Pole produced an intense and aggressive performance against Medvedev as he clubbed his groundstrokes and finished points at the net to triumph 7-6(7), 6-3 in two hours and two minutes.

Florida is not foreign to Hurkacz who spent a lot of time in the state training and preparing himself for a tennis career. He admitted as much saying:

“I have spent a lot of time in Florida, so I am used to the humidity. I think the conditions were in my favour today, so I tried to use them.”

On the match in particular he said:

“I think the return was crucial. I was able to make a lot of returns and get some free points on my serve, because having rallies with Daniil is fun, but they get long. It is good I was able to get some free points."

Asked whether he would like to face Alcaraz or Kecmanovic, Hurkacz briefly commented:

“Carlos has been playing some amazing tennis this year, only played good matches I think, so that would be super tough. But Kecmanovic played some super tennis in Indian Wells and he is now backing that up here in Miami. It will be interesting.”