AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 20, 2024

Hubert Hurkacz

Press Conference

H. HURKACZ/U. Humbert

3-6, 6-1, 7-6, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. You're into Week 2. Have you thought about your next-round matchup against Arthur Cazaux, who is having a great run this week?

HUBERT HURKACZ: I mean, definitely Arthur, he's been playing well. I mean, he beat, like, really great opponents.

So I haven't really seen him play that much, but definitely, no, with the coach, we'll look at his game.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Talking about Arthur, it's always strange to play a guy who comes almost from nowhere when you are a top 10 like you. He's 122 and he just won his first Grand Slam match this week. Is it difficult to enter a court without knowing everything about his game?

HUBERT HURKACZ: I mean, it's always a little bit more difficult, because, you know, I haven't played against him. But yeah, I mean, he's definitely now a great player. Winning, getting to the forefront of a Grand Slam, you've got to really play some great matches. You know, he beat great guys out there, so it's gonna be a difficult match.

Q. Obviously your serve has been among the best on the tour in the past two, three years. When did you realize when you sort of made that progression that it had improved? Were there any moments when you realized, hey, my serve is really good?

HUBERT HURKACZ: Well, so I think I started to work with CB, so with Craig, like, 2019, and we looked up my service rating and it was, like, around the 70th spot in the world. So we were, like, yeah, we've got to get that number a bit better, you know (smiling).

Yeah, we have been, you know, since then, you know, it has gotten better. Yeah, we just try to, you know, improve it.

Q. How typical was that, because obviously you served however you had served for many years, to make a change?

HUBERT HURKACZ: So I would say just definitely, you know, consciously making adjustments and figure things out, like, okay, like what things to improve on the serve, like, I mean, where to place the serve and, you know, to find the good rhythm on your serve, toss it in the right spot.

So, yeah, we are still always working on it, but definitely, you know, I think just putting in the hours, just putting in the hours and time and effort, you know, and just really, you know, consciously doing things.

It's not, like, oh, just serve a basket. No, you really think about each serve, like, what you're trying to achieve, what you're trying to feel it out there.