The Canadian beat the American in his first match of the 2022 season in an exhibition tournament in the Middle East.
Denis Shapovalov beat the American Taylor Fritz in less than an hour 6-3, 6-0 at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi an exhibition warm-up before the tour goes down under to Australia.
The first six games of the match went on serve and both players seemed comfortable holding their service games but at 3-3, it was the Toronto native with the first two breakpoints of the match.
The Canadian broke as the California native played a bad service game and hit an unforced error to take a 4-3 lead.
In the following the American tried to break back earning three break points but failed to convert.
After playing one of the toughest games of the match the world number 14 found himself at set point on Fritz’s serve and broke a second time to seal the first set.
Shapovalov held serve in the first game of the set and the Canadian kept the momentum going, earning the first breakpoint of the set and broke the world number 23 with a stunning forehand winner down the line.
The 22-year-old consolidated the break as he searched for more opportunities and broke serve once again on his third chance to go up a double break.
At 5-0, the Canadian found himself at match point and sealed the win as Fritz made another unforced error sending the ball long to complete the victory and book himself a date with Andrey Rublev on Friday.
