Photo: camerawork usa
On Monday, Denis Shapovalov lost his third-round singles match 7-5, 6-2 to one of the most improved ATP players this season, Aslan Karatsev. On Thursday night, alongside veteran partner Rohan Bopanna, Shapovalov had the chance to get instant revenge over Karatsev, this time in the doubles quarter-finals in Indian Wells.
Unfortunately for the Canadian, it wasn’t meant to be, as Karatsev and compatriot Andrey Rublev took out Shapovalov and Bopanna in straight sets by a score of 6-4, 6-4.
The Richmond Hill player fell just short of tying a career-best result in doubles at a Masters 1000 event. His best result was a semi-final appearance back in 2019 at the National Bank Open presented by Rogers with his current partner, Bopanna.
The opening set was tight, but ultimately went to the all-Russian duo after they converted the only break of the set in the ninth game. The story of the first set was quick points and short rallies, and a lot of it had to do with the terrific play of the servers. The Indian-Canadian duo won 80 per cent of their first-serve points, while Karatsev and Rublev won an outstanding 100 per cent of theirs.
Onto the second set, and it was the returners galore instead, as five of the first seven games went to the receiving team. The all-Russian duo earned the break advantage in the seventh game and managed to hold their remaining service games to clinch a semi-final berth. Shapovalov and Bopanna made sure to make them earn the victory, fending off four match points in the ninth.
Karatsev and Rublev will face Tim Puetz of Germany and Michael Venus of New Zealand in the semi-finals.
