Hubert Hurkacz is fancied to secure his second Masters 1000 title by edging out Pablo Carreno Busta in our ATP Montreal predictions.
The 25-year-old Pole has featured in five past ATP Tour finals, winning them all, four of which were played on hard courts.
Hurkacz was successful at this level in Miami last season and is a worthy favourite at 1.5 to account for 2.55 underdog Carreno Busta.
Hubert Hurkacz odds
Hurkacz beat Nick Kyrgios and Daniil Medvedev en route to outright glory in Halle a couple of months ago but then suffered a dip in form.
The Pole only just scraped through his first two matches here before outstaying Kyrgios 6-1 in the third set after they split two tiebreaks.
Eighth seed Hurkacz once again showed his mental and physical fortitude by recovering from a shaky start to secure a 5-7 6-3 6-2 semi-final victory against Casper Ruud.
He admitted: “Casper was playing really incredible tennis and he was the better player at the beginning, especially for the first set and a half. I was trying to stay in the game and hold on to compete as good as I can.”
Hurkacz is not concerned by having played four consecutive three-set matches, adding: “Physically, I feel good. I’ve been putting a lot of work in these past weeks. So far, so good!”
He does seem to be getting stronger with every match, so 4.0 for Hurkacz to win 2-1 once more is a fair price from the Canadian Open final odds.
Pablo Carreno Busta odds
Carreno Busta absolutely blitzed through Matteo Berrettini, Holger Rune and Jannik Sinner, losing only 14 games, and eventually eased past the game but outgunned Jack Draper 7-6 6-1.
At that point, the two-time US Open semi-finalist looked to be peaking at just the right time for another bold showing at Flushing Meadows this year.
However, world number 39 Dan Evans became the first player at the tournament to take a set off the Spaniard in the semis, before the British number two was eventually outlasted 7-5 6-7 6-2 across two hours and 58 minutes.
The 23rd-ranked Carreno Busta relied on his first serve to advance, recording 43 winners and breaking on five of his eight chances.
Even so, the pair appeared exhausted as they embraced at the net as the match ended and the Spaniard’s powers of recovery will now be tested.
“It was fun for the crowd but for me it was tough,” said Carreno Busta.
“I had a match point in the second set but he served pretty good, so I couldn’t do anything. When you have a match point and have to play another set, it’s always hard to do it.
“Mentally, I think I was very good. Probably the beginning of the third set was the hardest part of the match.
“But after that I thought I had to be more aggressive, try to push a lot, try to go to the net, and it was good.”
The finalists are level at 1-1 from two meetings in 2021, when Carreno Busta won in Cincinnati and then Hurkacz came out on top in Metz, with both matches on hard courts.
Three of the four sets played ended in tiebreaks, so 4.1 for the opener to go all the way here is worth adding to our Canadian Open predictions.
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