MELBOURNE, Australia — Canada's Denis Shapovalov continued his run at the Australian Open with a dominant straight-sets upset victory over Alexander Zverev in the fourth round Sunday. Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont.
MELBOURNE, Australia - Denis Shapovalov of Canada continued his run at the Australian Open with a stunning straight-sets win over Alexander Zverev in the fourth round on Sunday.
Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ontario, defeated number three Zverev 6-3, 7-6(5), 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals.
The 14th-ranked 22-year-old Canadian will next take on sixth-ranked Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard earned his place in the quarterfinals with a straight sets win against Adrian Mannarino.
Shapovalov never made it past the third round of the Australian Open.
The Canadian was aggressive in the match and constantly challenged Zverev. He managed to clear 11 double faults in the match.
Shapovalov completely dominated the third set, which ended with Zverev sending him back into the net. They scuffled in celebration.
Shapovalov needed two hours and 21 minutes to beat Zverev - his fastest match so far in a Grand Slam tournament. His last three matches lasted over three hours, with his second-round victory over South Korea's Kwon Soon-woo in five sets that lasted four hours and 25 minutes.
But it was this much more coherent, composed performance that saw Shapovalov do Zverev's relatively quick work.
He broke his opponent in the very first game of the second set when he raised serious doubts in the mind of the German. Zverev angrily destroyed his racket, breaking it several times against the court.
The Canadian lost serve twice and went down 5–3 in the second set, forcing Zverev to break back and eventually tiebreak. In that tiebreak, Shapovalov nearly slipped a 5–1 lead, but maintained a 2–0 set lead.
Trouble began when Shapovalov broke the German serve in the fourth game to take a 3–1 lead. He served from there for an easy 6-3 win in the opening set.