Hubert Hurkacz of Poland won the ATP Shanghai Masters title after defeating Andrey Rublev of Russia 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(8) on Sunday. 

This was the second time for the 26-year-old to win a Masters 1000 title, after beating Italian Jannik Sinner and winning his first one in the Miami Open in 2021. 

The victory also sent Hurkacz to a real-time 11th position in the world, only 335 points short of the eighth-ranked Holger Rune of Denmark.

As he achieved his second victory against a top 10 player this year, Hurkacz also improved his head-to-head record with the fifth seed to 3-2.  

Hurkacz demonstrated his signature power serves on Sunday's final, firing 21 aces and winning 81 percent (57/70) of his first-serve points, which Rublev reflected after the match to be a weapon that Hurkacz very well capitalized on in the match.

Hurkacz reached his first match point after Rublev sent a backhand into the net to give the Pole a 5-5 draw in the tiebreak. And yet, it wasn't his 4th championship point that he wrapped up his biggest victory of the season in a little over two hours. 

"It's the final of the Masters Series, and we both have match points in the tiebreaker. We're just battling, and we both have some chances, so definitely it was just so exciting and super pumped at the end of the battle and win that last point," said Hurkacz after the match.  

"We played four times with each other and with him, you can easily lose only the way he serves. As we could see today he was serving unreal. The way he sometimes shoots from baseline, full power, so tough to do something," said Rublev. 

Meanwhile, Hurkacz wrote in Chinese "thank you" with a heart-shaped drawing on the side, causing a buzz on Chinese social media.

"I was just trying to memorize how to write it, and it's a difficult language. I just wanted to give thanks for the amazing support that I had throughout the whole almost two weeks here and to thank the Chinese fans," he said.