Denis Shapovalov is into his first-ever quarterfinal at the Australian Open after beating Alexander Zverev 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 in two hours and 22 minutes.
The Canadian hit 35 winners and three aces en route to becoming only the third man from his country to reach the last eight in Melbourne Park after Milos Raonic and Michael Belkin. He aslso broke Zverev four times in the match and won 65% of his service points.
“It is always nice to finish in three but unfortunately that is not always the case,” Shapovalov said afterwards.
“It’s probably what I least expected, to finish in three, so I’m very happy with my performance and where my game is at.
“Off the ground I was playing really well, feeling my shots off both wings. I played pretty smart today and I felt things were going my way early on plus a little bit of momentum in the second set I did well to come back and I kind of rolled with it afterwards.“
Shapovalov, who had only won two out of his six previous meetings with the German, started strongly by saving two breakpoints in the opening game of the match. At 2-1 he broke the world number three to take an early lead and that break of serve was enough to serve out the first set.
The Toronto native then had three further break-point chances in the first game of the second set and broke early once again but the German struck back to level the set at 2-2. Zverev then broke a second time to take a 5-3 lead.
The world number 14 responded by breaking right back when the Hamburg native served for the second set which was decided by a tiebreaker. In that breaker, Shapovalov jumped out to a 5-1 lead which was enough as the Canadian served out the second set.
Up two sets to none Shapovalov could see the finish line and continue to play his game using his lefty forehand to great effect and after holding serve in the opening game broke again for the early 2-0 lead.
That break of serve was enough for Shapovalov to serve out the match and set up a quarterfinal match with Rafael Nadal who beat the Frenchman Adrian Mannarino also in straight sets.
“It’s always an honour to go up against a guy like Rafa,” he said.
“We played not too long ago in an exhibition in completely different conditions, completely different match but it’s always fun and will always be a battle against him’
“It’s going to be a tough one and I’m definitely going to enjoy it.”
