Hubert Hurkacz halts Daniil Medvedev’s return to No. 1, maintains Miami Open streak

WATCH: Hurkacz made the most of the humid conditions on Thursday to oust the former No. 1 in straight sets.

Defending champion Hubert Hurkacz ended Daniil Medvedev’s hopes of returning to world No. 1 after the Miami Open, upsetting the top seed, 7-6 (7), 6-3 to extend his Miami win streak to 10 in a row at the Hard Rock Stadium.

Seeded No. 8 in Miami, Hurkacz had been toiling away on the outer courts but made an emphatic return to center stage despite sweltering conditions, securing the victory in two hours and three minutes to continue men’s quarterfinal action with Spanish teen Carlos Alcaraz and Miomir Kecmanovic still to play.

Medvedev first ascended to the top of the ATP rankings after his run in Acapulco, but lost the top spot to Novak Djokovic following an early exit at the BNP Paribas Open. The top seed again in Miami due to Djokovic's inability to enter the United States without a COVID-19 vaccine, the 26-year-old needed at least a semifinal finish to regain the No. 1 ranking. Three matches into that endeavor, he appeared in the form to make that happen, winning all three without dropping a set.

Hurkacz, by contrast, had played tougher matches to begin his title defense, including a three-setter against Aslan Karatsev in the third round where he rallied from a set down with the help of 24 aces, and outserved South African Lloyd Harris to book his fourth career meeting with Medvedev—their first of the season.

The pair played out a trilogy of intense matches in 2021, with Hurkacz scoring a five-set win at Wimbledon while the Russian avenged the defeat in two hard-court nailbiters in Montréal and Turin.

Hurkacz nonetheless enjoyed a faster start in his long-awaited return to Stadium court on Thursday, winning the first three games and soon found himself a game from the opening set.

Medvedev trailed by a similar deficit to start his fourth-round against rising American star Jenson Brooksby, and aimed to pull off the same Houdiniesque escape from two set points down, breaking Hurkacz as he served for the set and ultimately forced a tiebreaker.

Two more set points went begging as Medvedev persisted in evening the score, but Hurkacz, who is already into the men’s doubles semifinals alongside John Isner, was undeterred—sealing the Sudden Death on his fifth opportunity.

The second set came down to a marathon fifth game that saw Medvedev rally from 0-40 down and save five break points, only for Hurkacz to claim a sixth and move within eight points of the semifinals.

It was then that Medvedev began to physically flag from the high humidity, looking under the weather and taking some medication during a brief medical timeout during the ensuing changeover.

Hurkacz, who has won two of his four ATP titles in Florida, looked no worse for wear throughout the two sets and gamely charged through the final two games to reach his third career Masters 1000 semifinal.

Awaiting him there will be either Alcaraz or Kecmanovic, two of the most surprising stories so far in 2022. Alcaraz is fresh off a semifinal finish in Indian Wells—where he pushed Rafael Nadal to three sets—while Kecmanovic ended Taylor Fritz’s pursuit of a Sunshine Double in a three-set quarterfinal thriller.