With Roger Federer watching from the stands, Hubert Hurkacz lifted the second Masters 1000 title of his career on Sunday, beating Andrey Rublev in the final of the 2023 Shanghai Masters.

Hurkacz, who had won the 2021 Miami Open, prevailed 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(8) on the night against the Russian, finally taking his fourth championship point to take home his second trophy of the season.

Speaking at his press conference afterwards, Hurkacz admitted that he was very happy about joining the prestigious list of past winners at the tournament, which includes the likes of Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.

The Pole then remembered that during the presentation ceremony, he forgot to thank Roger Federer for coming to the final. The Swiss maestro dropped in on the Masters 1000 event as he was being presented with the first-ever ‘Icon Athlete’ designation by the tournament management in Shanghai.

Hurkacz jokingly hoped that Federer would not take his omission personally before stating that it was a lot of fun to play in front of the 20-time Grand Slam champion.

“Yes, no, you know, the tournament, there’s so many champions won it in the past and so many amazing players, and in my speech, I was, like, trying to thank everyone. I forgot to mention Roger, thanks for coming, so, yeah, sorry for that. Hopefully, he won’t take it personally (smiling), but definitely, you know, fun to play in front of him. Hopefully he enjoyed a little bit and, yeah, just so excited,” Hurkacz said.

Hurkacz also commented on the Shanghai Masters expanding to a 96-player draw for the first time with this year’s edition, remarking that it has made the competition even more exciting with a lot of potential winners in the mix.

“I think, you know, it’s definitely, you know, it’s a bit longer event. I mean, we really enjoy being here. I mean, I like the draw it was, you know, in the past was 54, I believe, so it was really amazing back then. Now it’s even tougher to win this kind of event, you know, 96 players, everyone wanting to win, everyone wanting to really battle and compete,” Hubert Hurkacz said.