Raonic tops Shapovalov in Canuck clash
CINCINNATI Milos Raonic gained a measure of revenge against Denis Shapovalov on Thursday at the Western & Southern Open, beating the teenager 7-6 (6), 6-4 in a matchup of Canada’s top male tennis players.
Raonic won the third-round match on his first match-point opportunity when the big-serving veteran showed a little finesse at the net, feathering a shot past Shapovalov to win the match on a break and set up a quarterfinal matchup with the winner of a match between Novak Djokovic and defending champion Grigor Dimitrov.
It was the second head-tohead meeting between Raonic and Shapovalov. The first came in May at the thirdround of the clay-court Madrid Open, with Shapovalov winning 64, 6-4.
It was a different story on the hardcourt at Cincinnati, and Raonic used his preferred surface to his advantage. The 27-yearold form Thornhill, Ont., had 12 aces to just two for Shapovalov. Raonic won 75 per cent of his service points and had seven break point opportunities, converting two.
Shapovalov said he tried to mix up the ways he was approaching his returns in an effort to better handle Raonic’s serves, including backing up from the baseline and moving in.
“It’s tough on days like this when he’s feeling it so good on his serve — it’s not easy to play against. I was just trying to do a bunch of thing,” he said.
“Today I figured, you know, he wasn’t returning that well off the backhand side, so I kept trying to pin him on that side, and it worked out pretty well for the most part.”