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MIAMI – It was one of those matches that, if won, might signal a reset and a return to top form for both Denis Shapovalov and Stefanos Tsitsipas.
For Tsitsipas, who has only barely dropped out of the top 10 despite having a tough go of it, it’s been a slog.
And he has nearly 1,400 points to defend during the clay-court season, starting with a title in Barcelona.
So it was all the more disheartening for him to lose to Shapovalov in such desultory fashion.
But for Shapovalov, who missed six months with a knee issue and whose ranking has dropped outside the top 100, it was a big boost.
The two finally got on court Friday night with all the rain. But they managed just three games before they were shut down for the night. But Shapovalov went to sleep with the early break.
Saturday, the Canadian picked right up where he left off. He was nigh untouchable on serve – a combination of his impressive serving and Tsitsipas’s sub-par returning.
Here’s what he had to say about it afterwards.
On Sunday, he faces young Italian Matteo Arnaldi – on paper an “easier” opponent than Tsitsipas, but one who has been inarguably in much better form of late.
They’ve played just once, at Roland Garros last year. And Shapovalov won in four sets despite the fact that his knee was just a month away from being shut down for the year.
A win would get him pretty close to being back in the top 100.
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Thanks for the interview and clip. They make for a lot missing in Canadian media concerning his career. Definitely a high point, this victory against Tsitsipas.
In terms of 1HBH, let’s also look at the victories by Dimitrov this week, who managed after many years to fix his serve (his toss wasn’t enough into the court) and to get rid of the Nadalization of his game, by coming more to the net.