Denis Shapovalov booked his spot in the third round of the Miami Open after beating world number 116 Ilya Ivashka 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4 in a match where he hit 37 winners while his opponent produced 50 unforced errors.
“A super tough one against Ivashka, I think he played really well,@ said Shapovalov.
“Never easy coming into a masters where you have a bye because the other player has already played a match and obviously he was in top form and for sure it was extremely difficult especially in the first set so I was happy I was able to turn the match around and kinda get those feelings from Dubai into the second and third set. I’m really happy and I was lucky with the rain delay and stuff like that overall just super happy to get through it”
The first two games of the match were pretty routine but at 1-2 it was the Canadian who was first to face some adversity as he faced the first two breakpoints of the match but managed to save them both with his huge lefty serve.
The very next game it was the world number 11 with a chance to break but it was his Belorussian counterpart who would come up saving it and holding serve.
Once again it went back and forth and the next game the number six seed had a chance to take the lead but failed to convert again and the match remained on serve.
The first set would be decided by a tiebreaker and it was the world number 116 who would take the first lead of the breaker as the Toronto native would double fault on the first point.
At 4-2 the Bahamas resident would break back but would immediately give the break back the very next point and that was enough for the Minsk native to take the first set.
The world number 11 was determined to stay in the match and broke the Belorussian serve in the opening game of the second set but once again it didn’t last long as his serve abandoned him and he would double fault twice in a row to give the break back.
The Canadian wasn’t giving up and responded by breaking right back the following game and that was enough for Shapovalov to take the second set needing four set points to send it to a decider.
The momentum stayed with the world number 11 in the beginning of the third set and he was able to earn two more breakpoints in the first game but the world number 116 hung in and saved both and would hold serve.
At 1-2 the Canadian got into a little more trouble with his serve again and another double fault set up two more breakpoints for the Belorussian but once again the number six seed came up big saving them.
At 3-3 the Toronto native had two more chances to break to take the lead and on the first one the Belorussian would save it before play was unfortunately halted due to a little rain.
After the short delay with the players waiting on court play would resume and on the first point back the Belorussian would double fault to give the Canadian the break to take a 4-3 lead.
After that it started to pour and the match was delayed for about an hour before the players were able to return on court and finish the match serving it out to book his spot in the next round.
Shapovalov will next face a familiar foe in the next round and that is Hubert Hurkacz who he most recently played in Dubai about a week ago.
” A super tricky next match, me and Hubert (Hurkacz) have played many times now and just recently in Dubai and I felt I played exceptional tennis and hopefully I can use that confidence and use those moments from last week to try and transition it to next week and of course it’s different conditions, different surface so it’s going to be a new match and a tough battle ahead of me”.
Shapovalov was also asked about the situation about his fellow countrymen Vasek Pospisil after the incident earlier in the week and he gave his sense of the situation.
” I don’t know, I wasn’t at the meeting so I don’t know what went down, and knowing Vasek (Pospisil) personally to get this upset and have it bothering him during a match something must have happened, I have heard from several players, not great information so I am on the PTPA side, I think we are not underrepresented but there are ways we could be represented better, I don’t think the ATP is doing the fullest job that they can be, I think there are other ways and other players that are trying to introduce helping the ATP bring in different information or sponsors and basically were all getting shut down and they’re basically telling us to go and play tennis which in my opinion is not right, they shouldn’t talk to us like that if we are partners and that’s my position”.
