Before the United Cup, former World No. 9 Nicolas Massu spoke with his player, Hubert Hurkacz. The Pole was readying for his first tournament in seven months thanks to a knee injury that required surgery last July.<\/p>\n
The message from the Chilean was clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnjoy the competition again,\u201d Massu told Hurkacz. \u201cLook back at where you’ve been, and all that you passed already in the past seven months. You deserve to be here. Appreciate that. Enjoy the moment. Go step by step, not thinking too much about the results.\u201d <\/p>\n
Since then, Hurkacz has made a dream start to his comeback in Sydney, earning straight-sets victories against World No. 3 Alexander Zverev and Tallon Griekspoor to help Poland reach the quarter-finals of the mixed-teams event.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m really, really happy because we had difficult times. And when you are out of competition seven months \u2014 it is a lot of time \u2014 you need to be patient,\u201d Massu said. \u201cYou need to be strong. It’s not too easy because sometimes you want to just start to think about the tournaments. You are missing weeks and then there is a slow recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Hurkacz\u2019s game has been sharp inside Ken Rosewall Arena, claiming his 20th win against a Top-10 opponent according to the Infosys ATP Win\/Loss Index, that does not mean recent months have been perfect. It has been far from it for the Pole, who in two consecutive seasons underwent knee surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s not easy to maintain the faith all the time because the days are long, it’s a lot of treatment, a lot of recovery,\u201d Massu said. \u201cBut at the same time, I’m totally convinced \u2014 because I had this in my so many years of Tour, so many years in tennis \u2014 that at some point, if you keep strong and you believe and you work hard, you deserve it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Massu made clear that Hurkacz has done everything in his power to not only recover physically, but to prepare for his comeback. From Marbella and Malaga to Monaco and Poland, Hurkacz has worked exhaustively to put himself in position for moments like he has experienced in the past week.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s incredible, the work ethic of Hubi. He follows everything 100 per cent. If he has to do this, he does that and more,\u201d Massu said. \u201cIt\u2019s not only on the court, it’s outside of the court: how he takes care of the food, of the treatment, all the stretching. So I think that when you work like this, the [positive] things need to come back. You deserve to have these kinds of results.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Hurkacz every day was the same. Early mornings, late nights and a lot of hard work. There were moments of pain and fatigue. But as the coach explained, \u201cthese things are hard\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy experience from my life and from my tennis career is that everything that is strong against you or sometimes it is dark, at the end of the tunnel, you see the light,\u201d Massu said. \u201cYou need to keep the faith.\u201d <\/p>\n
The two-time Olympic gold medalist returned to Chile for about three months before returning to Europe in September to help the Pole resume on-court training. They took things quite slowly, prioritising listening to Hurkacz\u2019s doctors and physio. A key was to not rush. <\/p>\n
\u201cEverything that we needed to do, we were doing, and we were listening to the right people,\u201d Massu said. \u201cWe were strong in the difficult moments and I think that the whole thing for me, from my point of view, that I wanted, is to see him again on the court competing.\u201d<\/p>\n
One thing that has certainly not left the Pole is his serve. Hurkacz has hit 42 aces across four sets and faced one total break point against formidable opposition.<\/p>\n
“It’s a big talent,” Massu said. “Also for sure he works a lot. He put a lot of focus there.”<\/p>\n
But the Chilean was also keen to point out how much of an all-around player Hurkacz is. The World No. 83 stands 6’5″, but has more than a big serve.<\/p>\n
“I think that he’s a very complete player. I still believe that he can play even on clay the same level as on hard court,” Massu said. ” And of course, we need to improve some little details that can bring him again to fight in the top of the top. But the most important is the health, I still believe that if he’s healthy, we can achieve good things.”<\/p>\n
Hurkacz is just getting started. While he hopes to maintain his great early form this week in Sydney, the overall comeback has just begun. Massu very much believes in his charge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always believe that nothing is impossible if you maintain the work ethic, if you maintain your positive mind,\u201d Massu said. \u201cAt some point, you will recover.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before the United Cup, former World No. 9 Nicolas Massu spoke with his player, Hubert Hurkacz. The Pole…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-395088","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}