Rafael Nadal produced a dominating display as he made the Rome quarter-finals with a 6-4 6-1 win over Denis Shapovalov.
The Canadian youngster was facing a difficult challenge from the start of the match as he had to endure two 10 minute holds early on. The task was made even harder as the top seed cruised through his service games.
Despite the 19 year old’s fearless play, he couldn’t hold off the Spaniard’s resistance for much longer as Nadal secured the break in the seventh game for a 4-3 lead. The world number two used his powerful backhands to dictate play and after 50 minutes the Spaniard sealed an impressive set of tennis.
The second set went exactly the same way as Nadal only lost three points on serve throughout the set. There were some moments where Shapovalov showed the Italian crowd his major talent, which will take him very far in the men’s game. However Nadal secure his fourth break of the match to clinch victory and storm into the last eight in Rome.
Nadal’s win means that he has secured 56 victories in Rome as he continues to create more history in Rome. As a result of his victory, he now enters the quarter-finals, where he will face home favourite Fabio Fognini.
In other results today there were wins for 4th seed Marin Cilic, who defeated Benoit Paire 6-3 6-4 and Pablo Carreño Busta who defeated Aljaz Bedene 6-4 6-7(3) 6-2. They will now play each other in the last eight.
