FILE PHOTO: Tennis - Halle Open - OWL Arena, Halle, Germany - June 23, 2024 Poland's Hubert Hurkacz in action during the final against Italy's Jannik Sinner REUTERS/Leon Kuegeler
(Reuters) - Carlos Alcaraz remains a favourite to defend his Wimbledon crown with seven-times champion Novak Djokovic nursing a knee injury but the tune-up tournaments have shown there is a host of pretenders trying to force their way into contention.
Poland has never had a men's Grand Slam singles champion but they will pin their hopes on Hubert Hurkacz after he rose to a career-high seventh in the world this week ahead of the grasscourt major.
Hurkacz's best result in a Grand Slam came when he reached the 2021 Wimbledon semis and the big-hitting 27-year-old made a splash in Halle where he nearly won the title for a second time.
He had been serving well all tournament, sending down nearly 80 aces in five matches, but he was denied the title by world number one Jannik Sinner who did not break his good friend and doubles partner but prevailed in two tiebreaks.
Americans, meanwhile, have won more Grand slam titles than any other country but the United States have not had a men's major winner since Andy Roddick won the 2003 U.S. Open.
But Tommy Paul, the new King of Queen's, is a contender to change that statistic.
"We have had a bit of a gap (since Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi won at Wimbledon), but historically and now the Americans like playing on grass," Paul said.
"We play an aggressive game style, I think most of us do, and I think it matches up well with the surface."
Paul picked up his first grasscourt title at the Queen's Club Championship, thus becoming the new American number one.
The 27-year-old dropped only one set in Queen's -- against Britain's number one Jack Draper -- and said the victory was the "perfect way to go to Wimbledon" where he has never moved past the fourth round.
"Somebody pointed out last week on social media that I had (been in) 33 quarter-finals (on the ATP circuit). We were, like, that's a pretty good number. Then we look and I had, like, 11 semi-finals," he added.
"So it's getting past those quarters and those semi-final matches, giving yourself an opportunity to win titles. Obviously this week I have done a pretty good job of that."
Alexander Zverev has reached the Australian Open semi-final and French Open final this season but is still in the hunt for his first Grand Slam title.
Zverev is an Olympic champion but the 27-year-old runs the risk of being consigned to the lost generation of players who showed massive potential but failed to win a Grand Slam title during the Big Three era of Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
He could not find a way to halt the Big Three's march to titles but he is now being upstaged by younger players such as Alcaraz and Sinner.
The German, who was second seed in Halle, fell to Hurkacz in the semi-final but will arrive at Wimbledon as one of the top four seeds.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Pritha Sarkar)
