Pole Hubert Hurkacz packs his rackets for the National Bank final

He wears down Casper Ruud of Norway serving 18 aces and hitting 47 winners in Montreal on Saturday.

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Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz cruised his way to the National Bank Open tennis championship final with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 victory over fourth-seeded Casper Ruud of Norway on Saturday in Montreal.

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Hurkacz served 18 aces and hit 47 winners and wore down Ruud for two hours to reach his second Masters 1000 final.

The eighth-seeded Hurkacz, who is the first Pole to reach the Canadian Open final since Wojtek Fibak lost to Guillermo Vilas in 1976, will face the winner of the afternoon match between Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain and Daniel Evans of Great Britain.

Ruud, who is 31-2 this season when he won the first set, let this match slip away in the first game of the third set when he lost serve after taking a 40-0 lead. Hurkacz earned another break in game three and cruised to victory in game three.

Ruud was up a set and a break early in the second set, but was unable to press his advantage.

“It wasn’t like I was serving for the match or anything like that, but it’s frustrating when you feel like you’re in the lead, you’re in control,” Ruud said. “Hubert got some really good returns there to bounce back. I had a double fault here, maybe a careless mistake there. He made some stupid choices. I can blame myself for that.

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“It’s frustrating, but Hubert is a great hard court player,” Ruud added. I think the first set didn’t go as expected when he was up. In a way he gave it away. The first set was a bit surprising that I was able to win, to be honest. He didn’t expect to be in the 7-5, 1-0 position when he was down 3-0 in the first set. But he made some sloppy mistakes, then erased them and played some beautiful winners and beautiful games.”

The turning point may have been when Hurkacz broke for a 4-2 lead in the second set and the break point was more lucky than beautiful. Hurkacz unleashed a forehand that hit the top of the net and slipped away.

“That was a lucky break at an important time,” Hurkacz admitted. “It happens sometimes. But I was trying to be aggressive at the time, so I was happy it paid off. Obviously, I don’t mind touching that cord, but it’s probably better to get a winner. It’s fine.”

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The victory moved Hurkacz to No. 10 in the ATP rankings and, if he wins on Sunday, he will jump ahead of Russia’s Andrey Rublev and his good friend Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal in eighth place.

The singles win was the start of what was shaping up to be a long day for Hurkacz. He and compatriot Jan Zielinski were scheduled to play a doubles semifinal against Evans and Australian John Peers. Because Evans was participating in a singles match that started at 8:00 p.m., it was unlikely that the doubles match would start before 10:30 p.m.

In the first doubles semifinal, third seed Wesley Kolhoff of the Netherlands and Neal Skupski of Britain defeated the German duo of Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies 3-6, 6-2, 10-8.

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