How the Novak Djokovic Fight Against ATP Will be Boosted by Hubert Hurkacz Winning Shanghai Masters

Hubert Hurkacz is on the rise and how. The Polish star is fresh off winning the Shanghai Masters title recently where he saved a match point to defeat the favorite, Andrey Rublev. Hurkacz will be excited for the upcoming tournaments as the World No.11 will finally have a chance to break into the top 10 of the men’s rankings. He also recently turned heads by talking about Novak Djokovic and PTPA in an interview.

Hurkacz rose to fame when he defeated the great Roger Federer at the Wimbledon 2021 in straight sets. That win included a bagel set, which made him only the second man after Rafael Nadal to serve Federer a bagel set in Grand Slams. That was also Federer’s last-ever Grand Slam match.

Hubert Hurkacz lauds Novak Djokovic for PTPA

Despite being a lifelong Roger Federer fan, Hubert Hurkacz has got along very well with Novak Djokovic. The World No.11 is yet to win a singles match against Djokovic but there is a consolation for him. Recently, Djokovic convinced Hurkacz to join the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA), an offer that the Polish star surprisingly accepted.

Novak Djokovic and Vasik Pospisil founded the PTPA 3 years ago. The association was formed with a principal goal to fight for players’ best interests and influence the ATP, WTA, and ITF to take player-friendly decisions to better the game. Recently, Hubert Hurkacz has joined this association along with Ons Jabeur. Hurkacz was full of praise for Djokovic and admitted that it was a pleasure to work with the World No.1 for the welfare of the players.

If the Polish star does manage to enter the top 10, he will become only the second member of the PTPA of be in the top 10 of men’s tennis after Novak Djokovic himself. Although Djokovic is not alone in the association, having a fellow world top 10 will be a big help for the Serbian and his team. Hurkacz’s value in the tennis world and outside of it when it comes to media and marketers, is set to rise and that is something that the PTPA could utilise to enhance its cause further. It would also help Djokovic in convincing other top 10 men’s players to join in without the fear of ATP taking strict action against them.

When Djokovic failed to convince Nadal and Federer to join PTPA

Novak Djokovic even tried to add Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in the organization but to no avail. Both the Spaniard and the Swiss slammed Djokovic for trying to challenge the ATP and decided against joining the PTPA. Later, Djokovic said in an interview that either both Nadal and Federer could possibly be too close to ATP or they did not understand the work of PTPA. The Serbian was left disappointed by the response of Nadal and Federer, as he also felt that probably they wrongly felt they had a lot to lose than gain from it so did not join him.

Djokovic even admitted that other top players or Grand Slam winners such as Andy Murray and Dominic Thiem refused to join him and his association but he is still trying to convince them. Adding his new rival and World No.2 Carlos Alcaraz to the PTPA is the next aim for Novak Djokovic.