Hubert Hurkacz is having a merry time in Shanghai, toppling seeds and playing eye-catching tennis in his quest to claim a maiden crown in China. The Pole is a strong favourite to clinch the title, having overcome Thanasi Kokkinakis and home-favourite Zhang Zhizhen in previous rounds.
A self-professed Formula one fan, Hubert has often been seen on the race tracks, cheering on his favourite athletes. Now, the 26-year-old was posed an important, yet decisive question that had him ponder over its significance.
Jordan rules sports excluding tennis according to Hubert
As tennis stars like Hubert Hurkacz, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Daniil Medvedev and a whole list of top seeds retreated to their locker rooms during the Shanghai Open, a journalist stopped them in their path to pose an interesting, tough question.
‘Outside of tennis, who is the GOAT?’ was the query and stars took their turn at naming icons from basketball, golf and football. But, it was one legend from basketball that ran out clear victor in the debate when multiple tennis players named him as the GOAT.
Starting from Tommy Paul and Ben Shelton to Hubert Hurkacz and Tsitsipas, 4 out of the 10 names thrown was Micheal Jordan. Hubert himself didn’t resort to naming his favourite sport stars but gave a frank description of who ruled the sporting world with respect to achievements and accolades won.
Michael Jordan is a basketball legend, a businessman and a movie star who has dominated the sport for many decades, and is an ideal candidate for the GOAT discourse.
Hurkacz advances to Shanghai Masters final
Hubert Hurkacz faced American Sebastian Korda in the semifinals of the Shanghai Masters. Having faced an array of top talent in his road to the meeting, Hubert was well-prepared for the challenge posed by Korda. Nevertheless, Korda was in maniacal form, having downed no.2 seed Daniil Medvedev earlier in the tournament.
The lanky Pole started strong, going into an early service lead. The domination continued as he broke Korda twice before sealing the first set. Korda managed to spring a surprise in the second set by coming out strong from the get go, but Hubert had all the answers in his playbook and effectively sealed the match 6-3, 6-4 with an all-important break.
Hubert Hurkacz will face world no.7 Andrey Rublev in the finals on Sunday. Rublev overcame a determined Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets and will look to continue his domination over Hubert, as he had defeated the Pole in their previous two meetings. Hubert, meanwhile, will look to play his best tennis in order to create history in China.
Who is the GOAT outside of tennis, in your opinion? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
