Canadian teen may be Open’s breakout star

There is a glimmer of hope in what has turned out to be a rather gloomy men’s singles bracket at the U.S. Open, and it happens to be a blond-haired 18-year-old Canadian carrying the light.

Denis Shapovalov continued his run at Flushing Meadows when his thirdround opponent, Kyle Edmund, retired with an injury after Shapovalov had gone up two sets to one — 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 — before winning the first game of the fourth set.

That moves Shapovalov to the fourth round, where he will face Pablo Carreno Busta. After that, the draw would pit Shapovalov against the winner between No. 16-seed Lucas Pouille and Diego Schwartzman, who upset No. 5-seed Marin Cilic on Friday.

That could get Shapovalov into the quarterfinals, when his exuberance really would be in the spotlight.

“It definitely opens up the draw quite a bit,” Shapovalov said. “I think five out of the top 10 guys were missing. It’s pretty significant. Yeah, I mean, it’s happening for a reason.”

Then Shapovalov found blame in the schedule for injuries to the likes of top players like Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, Novak Djokovic and Kei Nishikori.

“I feel like you don’t just have five guys injured. It’s got to be something with the scheduling, something I think the tour, the calendar might be a little bit too long,” Shapovalov said. “I don’t know. I haven’t played enough to say anything, but, you know, when you have so many guys hurt, it’s not a coincidence.”

Coming into the tournament a qualifier ranked 69th, Shapovalov made waves when he beat big-hitting Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second round Wednesday night under the lights of Arthur Ashe Stadium.