Delray Beach, Florida
Denis Shapovalov played his best and most complete match of the Delray Beach Open and he picked a good time to do so. The 18-year old phenom reached his second career ATP semi-final with a 7-5, 6-4 win over 20-year old American Taylor Fritz.
Shapovalov was on his game throughout the 77 minute match finding the corners from the baseline and mixing in a decent volley game too boot. Fritz stayed in several points and there were some decent rallies but it was the Canadian who came through in the key moments.
After both players held serve through the first ten games, Fritz got unlucky on the first point of the next game. After a big first serve was barely returned over the net by Shapovalov, Fritz raced to the net and hit a winner into the open court but his foot managed to touch the net. When a players racquet or body touches any part of the net the point goes to the opposing player. Two points later Shapovalov hit a massive backhand return winner off another decent serve from Fritz. He closed out the set with a stellar backhand passing shot down the line which clipped Fritz’s racquet.
TV cameras caught a fun moment as Shapovalov could be seen on camera bobbing his head along to the stadium music being played.
In the second set, again there wasn’t much between the players. In the seventh game Fritz had a game point but was unable to convert and instead it was “Shapo” who hit a nice service return winner and on the following point Fritz fell down hitting a forehand into the open court to capture yet another break. In the next game, Shapovalov did get into some trouble facing a pair of break points. However, three aces in the following four points along with a Fritz groundstroke mistake gave the youngster a 5-3 lead.
Two games later Shapovalov served out the match and raised his arms in victory moving into his first ATP 250 semi-final.
“I was serving extremely well, I was placing it well,” said Shapovalov. “I felt really comfortable from the warmup, really good with my timing & I returned well when I needed too and when I needed t0o I got the breaks. I was feeling really good on both the forehand and backhand. When I am feeling good off my backhand it’s a big bonus, I feel like my backhand does win me a lot of points”
Shapovalov will now face either Hyeon Chung or Frances Tiafoe in Saturday night’s semi-final. The two have played once before, that coming in the end of the year NextGen ATP Finals in Milan. Chung won that match in four “4 -game” sets.
The native of Richmond Hill Ontario is inching closer to becoming the 15th 18-year-old since 2000 to win an ATP World Tour title. The youngest player to do so was Kei Nishikori, who at 18 years, 1 month and 19 days when the Delray Beach Open ten years ago.
@Sportshorn
