Canada’s hopes exit with Shapovalov
Dutchman’s experience and guile too much for Canadian, writes Jane Stevenson.
TORONTO El Shapo is out of the Rogers Cup, and with his exit, the hopes of Canada for a major tennis win at home.
Denis Shapovalov, the last Canadian player standing at the country’s biggest tennis tournament, admitted he was outsmarted in the third round by Dutchman Robin Haase on Thursday night at the Aviva Centre in Toronto.
The 31-year-old veteran quickly dispatched the 19-yearold tennis sensation 7-5, 6-2 in a match that lasted all of one hour and 15 minutes during a cool, breezy night after a hot and humid day.
Experience and finesse trumped youth and power.
“He played me really smart today,” said Shapovalov during a five-minute press conference in the bowels of the centre after the match.
“He was changing the pace a lot, you know, and playing me — playing me pretty slow, actually. And it was pretty windy, so it was tough for me to get behind the balls and play aggressive today. So he played smart in that way.”
The Vaughan, Ont.-trained Shapovalov, who was consistently serving at well over 200 km/ h, was also guilty of committing 42 unforced errors (according to Tennis TV ) and six double faults compared with Haase’s 18 unforced errors and three double faults.
“He’s got a lot of experience,” said Shapovalov of Haase, who will next play Russian Karen Khachanov in the quarter-finals on the hard courts.
“He’s been playing unbelievable. He likes these courts. He made semis last year. So he’s playing very confident. So huge credits to him. And yeah, hopefully he can go far.”
Shapovalov also lost momentum with his second serve, winning a mere 36 per cent of his points there compared to Haase’s 65 per cent.
And of Shapo’s first serves, only 52 per cent were in compared to Haase’s 57 per cent.
Neither player was having a great serving game, but Haase did consistently better with his ground strokes.
The teenager also insisted he wasn’t injured and there was no pressure to perform at home as fans repeatedly shouted out “Go Denis!” or clapped their hands and yelled, “Let’s go Denis!” while waving all sizes of the Canadian flag.
“No, I didn’t feel any pressure whatsoever,” said the blond six-footer. “I was excited to come back on centre court. Anytime I get to play under a big court, it’s always an honour for me. So, yeah, I was really happy and excited to be out there. Just didn’t turn out as I wanted it to today.”
Shapo, who made his name at last year’s Rogers Cup in Montreal by shocking Rafael Nadal in the third round, never seemed to solidify his power game due to Haase’s slices and drop shots.
He told reporters he never found his footing on the windy night and he felt he let his fans down.
“First of all, I just want to thank the fans for coming out tonight and this week,” he said. “They’ve been a huge part of my success before and a huge part of my success this week. Even today with the crowd support, it was helping me kind of trying to stay in the match and keep fighting. So I really appreciate that.
“And obviously, you know, I’m sorry I kind of disappointed them today with a little bit of — you know, not poor play, but I wasn’t able to perform my best. But I’ll be stronger next year and, you know, I’m really excited to be back in Montreal next year and be back here in two years.” Just call it a Haase-break. Shapovalov, who was ranked 250th in the world to start 2017, entered the event ranked No. 26 in the world.