SHAPOVALOV TAKES ANOTHER STEP DESPITE A TOUGH LOSS

Young Canadian shows he has what it takes in marathon U.S. Open quarterfinal match

After four hours and nine minutes on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court, after his Tuesday night quarterfinal match at the U.S, Open came to an end at 1:10 on Wednesday morning in an exhausting five-set loss in New York, Denis Shapovalov was not thinking much about silver linings.

“There’s definitely a lot of positives that I don’t see right now,” said the 21-year-old Canadian, managing a smile after the match with Pablo Carreno Busta was finally over. “It’s a tough moment. I was in that match, I had a good chance to win it. I was almost in every set. Very frustrating right now. Tough to look at positives.”

He was right about just about all of that. Shapovalov won the first set against his veteran opponent quite easily, then lost each of the next two in tiebreakers. He blew Carreno Busta off the court with a 6-0 rout in the fourth set, but a double-fault on break point put him in a hole in the fifth set from which he couldn’t recover. Carreno Busta held the rest of his service games to take the deciding set 6-3, a rally that didn’t look likely after he sagged through the fourth set and took a medical timeout to have work on his back before the final set began.

“I didn’t expect him to come to life like that, especially after the medical,” Shapovalov said. “I mean, he looked dead in the fourth. It’s a little bit shocking.”

Carreno Busta said his back had tightened up, but in halting English he described the work of the on-site physiotherapist: “He try to do his things. Was incredible, no?”

Back from the dead, he was able to move again, and dictate play to his opponent.

“Is difficult, of course, because Denis try to play more aggressive than me,” Carreno Busta said.

“I just do it, no? It’s very important to me to win this match because Denis is an incredible player.”

And while Shapovalov was in no mood for moral victories, there were indeed many positives to take away from New York. He went deeper than any Canadian man has managed at the U.S. Open, and he’s closing fast on the top 10 in the ATP rankings. Three years after his shocking run to the fourth round in New York in the Summer of Shapo, he’s becoming a serious Slam contender, adding some maturity and patience to his wild display of shotmaking. Against Carreno Busta he smashed 26 aces and hit 76 winners — against just five and 33 from the Spaniard — but a couple of mistakes in the tiebreakers were enough to turn the match.

“I had a lot of opportunities, a lot of chances,” Shapovalov said. “I came out tight. Played tight in the tiebreaks. I’m sure the next time I’ll be in this situation I’ll be more comfortable with it.”

Both players said they began the match with extra nerves, at least in part owing to the fact that the draw is wide open, with heavy favourite Novak Djokovic having been disqualified on Saturday after carelessly hitting a lineswoman with a ball. Alexander Zverev, who had booked his semifinal spot earlier on Tuesday with a win over Berna Coric, said he had also felt tight early.

“I think the Novak news shocked us all, and obviously for us younger guys, we see that as a massive opportunity, but we have to put our head down and just do our job,” Zverev said.

Shapovalov began his night looking a little shaky, as though the stage and the moment got to him just a bit. He dropped the first three points on his serve on his way to a break and an early 0-1 hole. Here was a guy all of 21 years old playing in his first Grand Slam quarter-final, and the wobble was understandable.

Shapovalov still had a chance to seize control of the match with a 4-3 lead in the tiebreak. He hit a forehand wide, and then Carreno Busta ripped off the next three points to take the set. He’s now in the semifinals of a Grand Slam for the second time in his career, and seemed to raise his game at the crucial moments, as though he would not let the rare opportunity get away.

It is not merely that Djokovic is a 17-time Grand Slam winner who was undefeated in 2020. Coupled with the injury absence of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal’s decision to remain in Europe rather than travel to compete at Flushing Meadows, Djokovic’s ejection means one of the three will not win a Slam title for the first time in 14 tournaments. The Big Three have snuffed out the Slam potential of entire generations of players.

“Yeah, it’s different,” Zverev said on Tuesday. “We’re going to have a new Grand Slam champion. This is the one thing that we know for sure.”