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Canada's Denis Shapovalov upsets Nick Kyrgios at Rogers Cup

Canada's Denis Shapovalov upsets Nick Kyrgios at Rogers Cup

TORONTO — After holding his serve to go up 4-1 in the third set Denis Shapovalov, the 17-year-old Canadian, pumped his fist before lifting both his hands in the air, encouraging the fans seated at Centre Court at the Aviva Centre to get a little louder.

In that moment, he looked as if he’d done this 100 times before, like this was completely routine. This of course being facing off against a top-20 player at an ATP Masters-1000 level event in his hometown of Toronto.

Except he hadn’t done this before and none of this was routine. On Monday night, Shapovalov was making his Rogers Cup debut and was playing just his second tour-level match, the first having come just a week ago in Washington. In both cases, he received a wild card that sent him directly into the main draw. On this night, however, Shapovalov looked like he won’t need wild cards for too much longer.

It’s no wonder he requested to play his first match on Centre Court.

I love playing on a big stage. I love, you know, impressing people. So, yeah, it was very fun for me,” the shaggy-haired Canadian teen told the press after he beat the world No. 19 Nick Kyrgios in three sets.

The young Canadian impressed plenty after earning the tournament’s first major upset when he topped the Australian 7-6(2) 3-6, 6-3. It was his first ATP Tour win and capped a banner day for Canada at the tournament after two other Canadians, Steven Diez and Peter Polansky — also wild cards — recorded upsets of their own earlier.

In a tournament that is as much about inviting the world’s best tennis players to our home and native land as it is about promoting homegrown talent, this was a day to remember for the Rogers Cup.

It's a huge day. I'm happy Peter and Steven pulled it through together with me. You know, I wish them the best for the next matches. Let's do it for Canada, I guess,” he said with a wide grin.

Canada was ready to welcome the budding superstar as he walked onto court to a chorus of cheers. He was trailed by a ball kid, not much shorter than him, holding a Canadian flag.

In yet another fitting sign Shapovalov looked right where he belonged, he and Kyrgios wore identical Nike outfits — teal shirt, white shorts — for the match. Though, as he often does, Shapovalov accessorized with a white ball cap. As the match began, the hat was turned backwards, the way any teenager playing against some buddies might. But early in the first set he turned it around, as if to signal, it was time to get down to business.

And he did. In his opening game, Shapovalov battled nerves and had to dig himself out of a 0-40 hole to hold his first serve of his young Rogers Cup career.

I just told myself, ‘Okay, just play every point.’ That was a pretty big game. It kind of set the tone of the match,” he said. “That first game was critical.”

From there, however, each held their respective serves without much trouble. At points, Shapovalov looked out of his depth with the big Australian’s serve, lunging at the ball as it whizzed by him or barely getting a racket on it.

He's got a huge serve. It was very difficult for me to return,” he said.

But he hung in there through his return games, all the way to a tiebreak. There, it was Shapovalov who whizzed out to an early lead. He hit a 202-kilometre per hour ace to go up 5-0 and would take the breaker by a commanding score of 7-2.

While it's true the pair were separated by four years and 351 ranking spots, at points in the match it wasn’t obviously clear who was the one playing in his second career tour match and who was the one playing in his 103rd. For much of the affair, Kyrgios looked nonchalant about the whole thing. He racked up 18 double faults in the match, including eight in the first set alone.

It was just bad serving day, I guess. I need to practice a little more,” a subdued Kyrgios said in press after the defeat.

The Australian, however, did level the match in the second set. He broke Shapovalov in the eighth game to go up 5-3 then served it out to send the match to a decider. In the third, though, it was all Shapovalov. He held his first serve then immediately broke his opponent, who very much looked as if he had another place to be by this point. Shapovalov, meanwhile, looked right where he belonged, pumping his fists and soaking it all in.

At the start I didn't kind of know how to act. It's tough playing the first time on Centre Court. But by the end of the match, I felt like the crowd really liked it when I was getting pumped up,” he said.

Serving for the match, Shapovalov went down 0-30 and the thought that he was going to lose the game crossed his mind: “I told myself, ‘let's serve a couple big serves and play a couple big shots.’”

He saved a break point in the game and on match point, he hit a cross-court winner to record his first career tour victory. “I'm not seeing things clearly yet. But somehow I did it. I don't know. It was a miracle.”

Following the match, Kyrgios had few words to share about his own performance, though he did offer some on his opponent’s.

He has a great future. I'm really looking forward to see how he's going to progress into the seniors and transition. He's a top player,” he said.

This month, Shapovalov has won the Wimbledon boys’ singles title and now he’s into the second round of a tour-level event. His next match will be against another young player, Grigor Dimitrov. Already Shapovalov looks like a true professional out there, so naturally, he's not done yet.

"It's just a matter of refocusing, getting ready for the match. Tournament is not over. I could celebrate my win from Nick after the tournament, but now I'm going to focus for Dimitrov."