Wimbledon will have an unseeded threat who every ATP player will be wanting to avoid in the first round

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The grass season is in full swing on the ATP tour, with two events having already reached their conclusion.

Taylor Fritz won the Stuttgart Open, defeating Alexander Zverev in the final, while Gabriel Diallo won his first tour-level title at the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships.

Now underway are the Halle Open and Queen’s, where Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are the first seeds at each event, respectively.

Just around the corner is the third Grand Slam of the season, the Wimbledon championships, where Alcaraz is the defending champion following his triumph over Novak Djokovic last year.

The Spaniard and his Roland Garros final opponent, Sinner, will be the heavy favourites for the tournament and will likely enter the tournament as the first and second seeds.

They’ll both hope for a comfortable draw en route to the title, and they’ll want to avoid a player who has recently been confirmed to be unseeded at the event.

The unseeded threat at Wimbledon players will want to avoid

After withdrawing from the Halle Open before his scheduled first-round match, Hubert Hurkacz‘s ranking will drop.

He made the final in Halle last season and would have hoped to defend his points at this year’s event, but the back issues he has been dealing with since the Miami Open have forced him to pull out.

As a result, the Pole will lose points and will fall out of the top 32 in the world, meaning he’ll be unseeded for Wimbledon.

This could pose a big problem for top players on the tour, who may have to come up against the former world number six in the opening rounds of the major.

While not an outright grass-court specialist, Hurkacz’s record on grass is the best out of the three surfaces.

He has a win percentage of 65%, with a record of 26 wins and 14 losses, compared to his clay and hard-court win percentages of 56% and 60%.

Hurkacz has also had his best Grand Slam performance on grass, having made the semi-finals of Wimbledon in 2021.

The big server’s game suits the surface well, and barring any further injuries, could be a big threat to the top seeds in the early stages at the All England Club.

Hubert Hurkacz’s biggest triumphs on grass throughout his career

In his career, Hurkacz has reached two finals on grass, emerging victorious in one of them.

His first came at the Halle Open in 2022, where he earned a statement victory over former world number one Daniil Medvedev in straight sets to hoist the trophy.

The victory concluded a fantastic run from Hurkacz, who clinched victories over Nick Kyrgios, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Ugo Humbert en route to the title.

Two years later, he made his second final on grass, which again came at the Halle Open, where he suffered a near miss to Sinner in a final showdown that featured two tiebreaks.

Perhaps his best result on the surface, however, was the final four appearance at Wimbledon, where he defeated Roger Federer to book his place in the semi-final of a major for the first time.

Hurkacz lost to Matteo Berrettini in over four sets in the next round, but the run remains his best at a Grand Slam to date.