Hubert Hurkacz has had a remarkable 2023 season, perhaps even his best ever so far. His achievements have just been acknowledged by the ATP who nominated him for the prestigious Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award. 

The latter is given at the end of each season to a player who „has maintained the highest level of professionalism throughout the year, competed with others with integrity, and promoted the game through his off-court activities.” The other nominees are Italy’s Jannick Sinner, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov. 

Hubi’s coach Craig Boynton was nominated in the category Coach of the Year, together with Darren Cahill and Simone Vagnozzi (Sinner), Juan Carlos Ferrero (Alcaraz), Goran Ivanisevic (Djokovic) and Bryan Shelton, Ben’s father. 

In 2023, Hurkacz won tournaments in the Marseille Open and the Masters 1000 in Shanghai and reached the final in Basel. The Silesian even made it to the ATP Finals, where he played a (symbolic) match against world number 1 Novak Djokovic. Hubi also finished in the top 10 for the third season in a row, recently returning to his career-high 9th position. 

The giant from Wrocław impressed everyone this season with the remarkable efficiency of his serves. The Pole holds the record of most aces (a serve so good that it is not even touched by the opponent – editor’s note) delivered this year with an incredible 1,031 aces in only 69 matches. That means about 15 aces per game! Taylor Fritz follows with merely 692 of them in 77 games and Andrey Rublev with 616 in 82 games. 

Image: Mike Lawrence

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen