Hurkacz praises Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal's mentality

Hubert Hurkacz never hid that he grew up idolizing Roger Federer. When asked to build his ideal tennis player, the Polish tennis player chose the straight and net game of the Swiss champion, admitting that he is also a big fan of Rafael Nadal. The 23-year-old from Wroclaw had the opportunity to challenge the 20-time Slam champion in the quarterfinals of the 2019 BNP Paribas Open, when Federer won with a double 6-4.

Hurkacz on Federer and Nadal's mentality

“My coach Craig here didn’t want me to do this shot. So I was doing a drill here, practicing this shot (tweener) and he would tell me that you’re missing almost all of them,” Hubert Hurkacz told Essentially Sports in an exclusive interview. “I’ll go with John‘s serve, Novak’s return, probably Roger Federer’s forehand, and backhand could be Novak’s as well. Footwork would be Gael Monfils, volley Roger as well. Mentality would be Roger, Rafa,” Hubert Hurkacz added. He also revealed his feelings on the ATP Cup and representing Poland: “Yeah I mean that was really great experience for me, playing for my country with all the guys there from Poland. And obviously we enjoyed really great support. That was a special event, taken for the first time there. And I really loved the way it worked out in the end. Obviously, we couldn’t go through the group stage, but it was definitely a fun experience.” Hurkacz expressed his sympathies with those bearing the brunt of tennis stopping: “Yeah, obviously it’s tough especially for the lower-ranked players. They play some tennis leagues to get money to be able to travel and play. So it’s really good that ATP and WTA are trying to create a fund to help them coz they are obviously loving tennis and trying to get as good as they can but now at a certain state of their careers, they need to play some tournaments to improve their rankings.”

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3cjafIO