Hurkacz claims maiden title at Winston-Salem Open

Hubert Hurkacz lifted his first ATP trophy after upstaging top seed Benoit Paire in the final of the Winston-Salem Open.

Hurkacz made Polish history as the third seed stunned Paire 6-3 3-6 6-3 at the ATP 250 tournament in North Carolina on Saturday.

The 22-year-old became the first Pole to win a tour-level title since Wojtek Fibak in 1982 after breaking serve on five occasions against Paire.

Contesting his first ATP final, Hurkacz defeated four consecutive seeded opponents to celebrate a maiden trophy following wins over 16th seed Feliciano Lopez, 10th seed Frances Tiafoe and second seed Denis Shapovalov before trumping Paire.

An error occurred while retrieving the Tweet. It might have been deleted.

Hurkacz, who withstood a brief rain delay in the decider, will now head into the US Open with confidence.

He will open his Flushing Meadows campaign against another Frenchman – Jeremy Chardy – while Paire is set to face Brayden Schnur.