The Pole returned from a long-term injury layoff in January ranked outside the top 50. Hubert Hurkacz, Poland’s top ranked male tennis player, fought back from a set down to reach his first ATP Tour final of what has been a bruising comeback season. The Pole, who has had to overcome challenging long-term injuries, beat Canada's Denis Shapovalov 6-7(8-10), 6-3, 6-3 in the last four of the Chengdu Open on Monday to book his place in the final. The Pole will face Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who beat Georgia's Nikoloz Basilashvili 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the other semi-final, on Tuesday at 1 pm Polish time. It is the 13th final of Hurkacz's career, but his first since Geneva in May last year — a long wait that reflects just how difficult his 2026 season has been. The 29-year-old from Wrocław, who climbed to a career-high world No. 9 in November 2021 and matched that ranking again in 2023, has spent much of this year rebuilding almost from scratch. He returned from a long-term injury layoff in January ranked outside the top 50, then watched his ranking slide further as the year wore on, dropping into the 90s and briefly dipping outside of the top 100 altogether — a level he had not been close to in years. Hurkacz even had to fight a Challenger-level final — one level below the ATP Tour — in Cagliari in April just to find his footing again. Monday's win, though hard-fought, showed signs the Pole’s old resilience is returning. But Hurkacz will go into Tuesday's final as the underdog on paper. He has met Davidovich Fokina six times and trails 2-4 in the head-to-head, having lost their last two encounters.
