-Toronto, Canada
Denis Shapovalov had the best moment of his career on home soil at the Rogers Cup in Montreal last year. The way he is playing through his first two matches in Toronto this year, Canadian tennis fans could be in for another treat. The 19-year old Canadian needed 80 mins to dispatch Fabio Fognini 6-3, 7-5 in the second round on Wednesday night.
It was an impressive win for “Shapo” especially after going down 0-4 after being broken twice in the second set but then rallying to win 7 of the last 8 games of the match. Another moment early in his career where his poise and confidence helped him win another match.
The first break of the opening set came in the fourth game after Fognini decided to challenge a call mid-point which he thought went wide. He was wrong and it gave Shapovalov a pair of break points. The World No. 26 then hit an enormous backhand service return winner on the next point and he went up 3-1.
After an hour plus rain delay, Shapovalov won four straight points to give him the opening set in 34 minutes of playing time.
The start of the second was all Fognini. He broke Shapovalov in his opening two service games. The Canadian making a plethora of errors from both the forehand and backhand sides. Suddenly it was 4-0 for the World No. 14.
After a racquet change and a large boost from the hometown crowd, Shapovalov immediately broke Fognini after one of his 33 unforced errors in the match went into the net.
Two games later Fognini, coming of the title at Los Cabos last week, double faulted another break away and the set was back on serve.
In the eleventh game, a couple of mistakes off Fognini’s racquet including a double fault and a forehand that went long on break point sent the crowd into an uproar and gave Shapovalov his third break of the set. The youngster motioning the crowd to get on their feet which didn’t appear to sit well with the older Fognini. The Italian sent a few words in the direction of Shapovalov as they walked to their seats both players continuing to chirp each other during the sit-down. Fognini appeared to call his opponent “arrogant” at one point.
In the next game, Shapovalov hit a spectacular backhand crosscourt winner to go up 30-15 and on match point he hit a forehand deep into the corner to set up an easy put away volley and the match was his. For the second straight year, the youngster is thrilling crowds in Canada.
“The crowd on Grand Stand, I think it helped me a lot,” said Shapovalov ” because it was so ecstatic, so energetic because it’s so compact, that it actually bothered Fognini quite a bit, especially toward the end. So it really worked in my favor, and I really enjoyed myself out there.”
Shapovalov had 18 winners and 28 errors in the match along with 9 aces. Fognini had just 6 winners throughout and just one ace. So could the 19-year old duplicate his run in Canada from a year ago?
“Definitely. I think my game is at a very high level right now,” Shapovalov said. “You know, last week, even though I lost to Kei, it was a really good match. And I was telling everyone, I’m playing well in practice. I’m feeling really good. And I think having my mom on the side has really helped me the last couple weeks. I’ve really picked up my game. We’ve really worked on a couple of aspects that have helped me in the last couple of weeks. So I’m playing really good tennis, and I’m really happy with where I am right now.”
Next up for the home favourite is a meeting with Robin Hasse. Both players reached the semi-finals in Montreal a year ago. The two could also very well meet again in September as Canada will face the Netherlands in a Davis Cup World Group tie, also in Toronto.
