Delray Beach, Florida
It was a clash of NextGen players on Stadium Court at the Delray Beach Open on Thursday afternoon and 18-year old Denis Shapovalov came away victorious. Shapovalov moved into his second career ATP quarter-final with a 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 win over 21-year old American Jared Donaldson in a highly contested match which took two hours and 25 minutes to be played.
Both players showed why they are the future of the game with some big hitting, superb shotmaking and highly entertaining tennis on a hot afternoon in Florida.
Shapovalov got off to a rocky start with two double faults and he was broken in the first game of the match. However, Donaldson gave it right back in the next game after Shapovalov converted his second break point chance.
The rest of the way the players held serve and a tiebreak was needed to decide the set. Shapovalov started by making three errors to put him in a 0-3 hole but he rallied back winning five of the next six points. Donaldson then won three of the next four points including an ace to seal the set 8-6 in the breaker.
A big turning point could have come in the second game of the second set. Donaldson up 1-0 had an opportunity to take a hold of the match with two break points against Shapovalov’s serve but he was unable to convert. The Canadian even threw in back to back double faults but managed to escape.
Donaldson won 12 straight points on his serve to start the set but things quickly turned in the seventh game. Donaldson got into a 0-40 hole and a crosscourt forehand miss gave Shapovalov the break to go up 4-3.
The World No. 46 used a rare 77 mph first serve kick serve to seal the second set 6-4. An hour and 42 minutes in and they were tied at a set a piece.
In the third, the players both held serve until the ninth game. Donaldson, who had been playing solid tennis throughout the match picked a bad time to play his worst game. A Shapovalov forehand winner, a Donaldson miss hit and then forehand wide gave the Canadian the break. He served it out at Love including an ace on match point to move on to the next round.
“I’ve been in this position before,” said Shapovalov. “Last year I was coming out with a lot of W’s in late sets. It’s definitely a big confidence booster for me. I’m starting to get a lot of momentum. Honestly, I think my game has improved a lot from last year. Physically I’m stronger. Mentally I’m stronger…I’m really happy with where I stand right now.”
Shapovalov, the youngest player in the draw, won 78 percent of his points on first serve but he will want to cut down on his double faults. With his seven doubles on Wednesday, he is up to a total of 15 in his two matches in the tournament. The native of Richmond Hill Ontario, won his first back-to-back ATP Tour matches since his run at the US Open last year.
Shapovalov and Donaldson had never played against each other before although both players had practiced with each other in the past including earlier this week in Florida.
Next up for the Canadian is another NextGen American Taylor Fritz. The 20-year old won his 2nd Round match over Mikhail Youzhny in three sets. Fritz and Shapovalov have played each other just once before. The match in the Round of 16 at the Junior Level Orange Bowl in 2014. Fritz won it in straight sets.
“I’m just taking it one match at a time,” Shapovalov said. “There’s still a lot of good players in the draw. You could see anyone could beat anyone on any given day. Today was a really close match one or two points made the difference.”
When told Juan Martin Del Potro was still remaining in his half of the draw Shapovalov laughed “Del Po is always a pain in the ass.”
Note:
The fact this is Shapovalov’s second career quarter-final is a bit misleading. He has needed to win just two matches at this smaller ATP 250 event in Florida to get there. In Montreal, a Masters 1000 event, he had to win three matches, one against Nadal to get to the quarter-finals. At last year’s US Open he also won three matches but that was only good enough to get him into the 4th Round there.
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