The American needed two hours and five minutes to upset the Canadian in a three set marathon.
Taylor Fritz is into the Qatar Open semi finals after coming back from a set down to beat the number four seed and Canadian Denis Shapovalov 5-7,6-3,7-5 in two hours and five minutes. The American fired 11 aces and won 3 of 4 breakpoints.
“You know I’m feeling good, I’ve had a lot of court time, a lot of close wins the most important thing is for my game is winning the big points and kinda coming through under pressure and I’ve done a pretty good job of that throughout the first three rounds of the tournament so I have to keep it going”
The first set was the tightest set of Tennis we had witnessed so far in 2021 as both players didn’t flinch and held serve with ease. We didn’t see a break opportunity until 5-5 when the world number 11 earned two chances to break and on the second chance made good once again using his powerful one-handed backhand to take a 6-5 lead and served out the first set to take it 7-5.
If you thought the momentum would stay with the Canadian you were wrong as the American responded holding the opening serve of the second set and breaking the Canadian to take a 2-0 lead off an unforced error.
He would go on to serve out the second set to take 6-3 and set up a deciding third set showdown for a spot in the semi finals.
Before the third set got underway Shapovalov called for the trainer to work on his shoulder blade during a medical timeout, an issue he had been dealing with every single tournament he has played this season so far.
The nagging injury seem to have affected him as he was broken serving an untimely double fault giving the American a 1-0 lead. It stayed on serve until 4-3 when the number four seed had 2 breakpoints but the California native did a good job saving both and holding serve for a 5-3 lead.
Fritz at 5-4 had a chance to serve for the match and even was up two match points but the Canadian was determined to stay in the match saving both before breaking right back to level the third set at 5-5.
Once again the American responded the very next game setting up another breakpoint with a stunning passing shot and breaking the world number 11 once more to take a 6-5 lead and a second chance to serve it out.
He did just that winning a love service to book his spot in the semi finals where he will either face Roger Federer or Nikoloz Basilashvili who are scheduled to play in the night session.
In the on court interview Fritz spoke about how fortunate he was to get the win as in the previous meeting a five set thriller at the US Open he wasn’t able to and lost the match.
” It’s huge the feeling of not serving out that 5-4 game 40-15 that like took a lot out of me and put me down and obviously it was like last time we played so I just had to tell myself mentally ” you can’t let it happen again”, I just didn’t want to lose in the same situation as last time and I just had to push a bit harder”
