ATP Next Gen Finals 2018: Interactive timeline of Hubert Hurkacz's steep rise up the men's rankings ladder

How he qualified Hubert Hurkacz originally did not make the cut for the Next Gen Finals. But then many things fell into place at the same time to conspire in his favour. First, Frenchman Ugo Humbert, who was ninth in the race to the Next Gen Finals, pulled out of last week’s Brest ATP Challenger. At the same event, American Michael Mmoh, who was 10th, stuttered in the first round against Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis. Berankis’ run at the tournament was then ended in the final by Hurkacz, a win which propelled him up the ladder in the Race to the Next Gen Finals. Then he got plain lucky as Denis Shapovalov withdrew from the tournament due to exhaustion. Hurkacz’s 2018 in 280 characters Hurkacz’s rank on 30 October 2017: 343 Hurkacz’s rank in January 2018: 238. Hurkacz’s current rank: 79! Biggest scalp of the season Hurkacz’s run at the 2018 French Open ended at the hands of Marin Cilic in the third round, but not before he had created an upset of sorts by beating the then World No 54 Tennys Sandgren, who had made a run to the quarter-finals at the Australian Open this year, in four sets. Hurkacz’s own ranking at this stage was 188 — 134 rungs below Sandgren’s. One thing you didn’t know about Hurkacz In the off-season, Hurkacz travelled to Dubai to train with Lucas Pouille, then the World No 12. Why is Hurkacz the Next Gen? At just 21 years of age, Hurkacz is the top-ranked Polish male singles tennis player. It wouldn’t be unfair to call him the face of men’s singles tennis in Poland considering he’s the only one in the top 200 in the category. He’s been in the main draw at the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open this year. At two of those events, his run ended at the hands of Cilic. But the promise is there.