Canada's Shapovalov defeats 3rd-seeded Zverev for 1st Australian Open quarter-finals
CBC
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., defeated the third-ranked Zverev 6-3, 7-6(5), 6-3 to advance to the quarter-final.
The 22-year-old Canadian, ranked 14th, will face No. 6 Rafael Nadal in the next round. The Spaniard earned his spot in the quarter-final with a straight-sets victory against Adrian Mannarino.
Shapovalov had never made it past the third round at the Australian Open.
WATCH l Shapovalov upsets Zverev in straight sets:
The Canadian was aggressive in the match and constantly challenged the uninspired Zverev. He managed to overcome 11 double faults in the match.
Shapovalov completely dominated the third set, which ended with Zverev sending a return into the net. He fist-bumped in celebration.
Shapovalov needed two hours 21 minutes to defeat Zverev — his quickest match of the Grand Slam tournament so far. His previous three matches lasted more than three hours each, with his second-round victory over South Korea's Kwon Soon-woo going four hours 25 minutes across five sets.
But it was a much more consistent, composed performance that saw Shapovalov make relatively fast work of Zverev.
He put serious doubt in the German's mind when he broke his opponent on the very first game of the second set. Zverev destroyed his racket in anger, smashing it multiple times against the court.
The Canadian went on to lose serve twice to go down 5-3 in the second set before breaking Zverev right back to eventually force a tiebreak. In that tiebreak, Shapovalov nearly let a 5-1 lead slip away but he held on for the 2-0 set lead.
The upset was brewing early on when Shapovalov broke the German's serve on the fourth game to go up 3-1. He served out from there for the comfortable 6-3 opening-set win.
After fending off four set points and being unable to convert the first six of his own, Nadal finally clinched a 28-minute and 40-second tiebreaker to get himself on track to secure a spot in the quarter-finals for the 14th time.
After a 7-6 (14), 6-2, 6-2 fourth-round victory over fellow left-hander Mannarino on Sunday, Nadal is now potentially just three wins away from a men's record 21st Grand Slam singles title.
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