POLAND’S Hubert Hurkacz defeated Italian teenager Jannik Sinner in straight sets to win the Miami Open and claim the first ATP Masters title of his career Sunday.

Hurkacz, the first Polish singles player to win one of the ATP’s top level of events, continued his brilliant week by beating 19-year-old Sinner 7-6 (4), 6-4.

The 24-year-old, who upset Stefanos Tsitsipas and Andrey Rublev on his way to the final, becomes the lowest-ranked Masters champion since Tomas Berdych in Paris in 2005.

With Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer all skipping the tournament, the stage was set for an unexpected champion, and so it proved.

Hurkacz made the better start, winning the first three games, but Sinner responded with a run of three games of his own to draw level.

The prodigiously talented teenager was the youngest Masters finalist since Nadal and, after withstanding more pressure from Hurkacz, he broke the Pole’s serve at 5-5.

He was unable to serve out the set, though, and it was Hurkacz who stepped up to take it on a tie-break.

The Pole was flawless at the start of the second set, reeling off four games in a row, but he became a little tight in sight of the finish line and Sinner clawed his way back to 3-4.

The teenager was looking weary, though, and Hurkacz managed to keep his nerves at bay to make it across the finish line.

He climbed from 37 in the world rankings to a career-high of 16 yesterday.

Hurkacz said: “I was super, super happy that I was able to lift the biggest trophy of my life so far, so that’s something special for me.

“I had chances to go up 5-0 in the second set and he came back. He started to play better. I got a little bit nervous. He took the chance and it was very close there.”(SD-Agencies)