Before the United Cup, former World No. 9 Nicolas Massu spoke with his player, Hubert Hurkacz. The Pole was readying for his first tournament in seven months thanks to a knee injury that required surgery last July.
The message from the Chilean was clear.
“Enjoy the competition again,” Massu told Hurkacz. “Look back at where you’ve been, and all that you passed already in the past seven months. You deserve to be here. Appreciate that. Enjoy the moment. Go step by step, not thinking too much about the results.”
Since then, Hurkacz has made a dream start to his comeback in Sydney, earning straight-sets victories against World No. 3 Alexander Zverev and Tallon Griekspoor to help Poland reach the quarter-finals of the mixed-teams event.
“I’m really, really happy because we had difficult times. And when you are out of competition seven months — it is a lot of time — you need to be patient,” Massu said. “You need to be strong. It’s not too easy because sometimes you want to just start to think about the tournaments. You are missing weeks and then there is a slow recovery.”
Although Hurkacz’s game has been sharp inside Ken Rosewall Arena, claiming his 20th win against a Top-10 opponent according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index, that does not mean recent months have been perfect. It has been far from it for the Pole, who in two consecutive seasons underwent knee surgery.
“It’s not easy to maintain the faith all the time because the days are long, it’s a lot of treatment, a lot of recovery,” Massu said. “But at the same time, I’m totally convinced — because I had this in my so many years of Tour, so many years in tennis — that at some point, if you keep strong and you believe and you work hard, you deserve it.”
Massu made clear that Hurkacz has done everything in his power to not only recover physically, but to prepare for his comeback. From Marbella and Malaga to Monaco and Poland, Hurkacz has worked exhaustively to put himself in position for moments like he has experienced in the past week.
“It’s incredible, the work ethic of Hubi. He follows everything 100 per cent. If he has to do this, he does that and more,” Massu said. “It’s not only on the court, it’s outside of the court: how he takes care of the food, of the treatment, all the stretching. So I think that when you work like this, the [positive] things need to come back. You deserve to have these kinds of results.”
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For Hurkacz every day was the same. Early mornings, late nights and a lot of hard work. There were moments of pain and fatigue. But as the coach explained, “these things are hard”.
“My experience from my life and from my tennis career is that everything that is strong against you or sometimes it is dark, at the end of the tunnel, you see the light,” Massu said. “You need to keep the faith.”
The two-time Olympic gold medalist returned to Chile for about three months before returning to Europe in September to help the Pole resume on-court training. They took things quite slowly, prioritising listening to Hurkacz’s doctors and physio. A key was to not rush.
“Everything that we needed to do, we were doing, and we were listening to the right people,” Massu said. “We were strong in the difficult moments and I think that the whole thing for me, from my point of view, that I wanted, is to see him again on the court competing.”
Hurkacz is just getting started. While he hopes to maintain his great early form this week in Sydney, the overall comeback has just begun. Massu very much believes in his charge.
“I always believe that nothing is impossible if you maintain the work ethic, if you maintain your positive mind,” Massu said. “At some point, you will recover.”
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