@Sportshorn
Denis Shapovalov should go home, put his feet up and have a beer or three after the run he had on home soil this week at the Rogers Cup in Montreal. Only problem is he’s just 18-years old and isn’t legally old enough to drink in Canada. The “El Shapo/St. Denis” storied run came to an end in the semi-finals as fourth seed Alexander Zverev finally sent the Canadian home after a 6-4, 7-5 victory.
“I was actually a bit surprised how quick he is. I didn’t realize it,” said Zverev after the win. “I know that he has big shots. I know that he has a big forehand and big serve. His moving impressed me a lot today, going from sides to sides.”
The next generation star is just two years and five days older than Shapovalov but he is much more experienced and it showed on Court Central in Saturday’s match.
The players held serve throughout the first eight games of the opening set although Shapovalov had to endure a ten minute service game which included five deuces at one point. In the ninth game, Zverev used a great crosscourt backhand winner to set up two break points and then Shapovalov double faulted to give him the game to go up 5-4. The World No. 8 went on to close out the set in 44 minutes. The young Canadian making 18 unforced errors along the way.
Things appeared to be getting away from Shapovalov after being broken in the first game of the second set. However, as the story has been throughout the week, it wasn’t time to count out the blonde haired youngster just yet. After a change of racquets Shapovalov broke back after a pair of groundstroke mistakes from his opponent.
In the eighth game, Shapovalov had a great opportunity to take the lead. With the sold out crowd cheering him on, he created three break point chances but it was Zverev who won five straight points to level the match at 4-all.
Zverev, on an eight match winning streak, jumped ahead in the eleventh game. A forehand winner down the line and then the sixth double fault of the match by Shapovalov, his third double on break point, gave the 6’6 German a 6-5 edge.
After five deuces in the final game and three match points, Shapovalov was finally sent packing after his backhand went wide. A spectacular week came to an end with Canadian tennis fans discovering a new hero and tennis fans across the world taking notice of a future star.
“I felt like the crowd and the tournament, the whole city of Montreal, was really supporting him all the way,” said Zverev. “It was an amazing story. I think this is just the beginning of a very long story. Hopefully he can continue doing what he’s doing…. I also told him that this is just the first match of very, very many that we will play against him. Hopefully a lot of other big matches, maybe in Grand Slams, maybe in finals of tournaments. I just told him that this is the beginning for him.”
“Sascha is an unbelievable player. He’s going to be a champion,” said the Canadian. “Hopefully I can get there one day. Hopefully I can get to his level. I mean, he’s still better than me.”
Despite losing their native son, Canadian fans will still be in for a treat in Sunday afternoons Final. Zverev will face Roger Federer who is looking for his sixth title of the year and is inching closer to regaining the World No 1 ranking. He has defeated Zverev in two of their three previous meetings. The last coming in the Final in Halle in June, an easy straight sets win.
“I think he’s definitely the favorite. He’s been playing amazing tennis. He pretty much won every single big tournament he played this year. I feel like I’m playing well, so I know that I have to serve a lot better tomorrow than I did today. That was I think the thing that I struggled the most with today.”
As for Shapovalov, who took out Nadal and Del Potro among others this week, he is still undecided on whether or not to play in an ATP Challenger event he has entered in Vancouver, Canada next week. It’s a five and a half hour flight to get to the tournament. It may also make sense for him to take the week off to rest especially with the possibility of US Open qualifying coming up.
Shapovalov earned $220,760 US for his semi-final appearance at the Rogers Cup. His career earnings coming into the tournament were just $197,661 US.
