Denis Shapovalov cruised to victory in the semifinals at the Mifel Tennis Open, defeating Adam Walton 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the final. He will take on Aleksandar Kovacevic, who upset top-seeded Andrey Rublev 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the other semifinal.
Shapovalov is looking for his second title of the season after his victory at the ATP 500 Dallas Open in February.
The tournament’s No. 3 seed controlled most of the match, breaking Walton four times while hitting 24 winners to Walton’s eight. Shapovalov saved all four break points he faced and drilled seven aces, including one to clinch the match.
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The 26-year-old earned the first break early in the first set to go up 3-2. Walton had the chance to break the Canadian back in the next game, but Shapovalov was able to stave off break point and would respond with another break of his own before finishing off the set on serve to take the first 6-2, winning the final eight points of the set in the process.
Walton held serve to open the second set and forced triple break point with the chance to go up 2-0, but Shapovalov rattled off five consecutive points to take the game and hold serve. The Canadian would maintain that momentum through the rest of the match, breaking the Australian two more times en route to the victory. Shapovalov is now 2-0in head-to-head matches against Walton after winning their first match this past March at Indian Wells.
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Shapovalov won 76 per cent of his first-serve points and was successful when attacking Walton at the net, winning 86 per cent of his net points in the match. He was strong on his serve on Friday night, as he also converted 61% of his second serve points.
The lone blemishes for Shapovalov in the dominant win were his four double faults and 19 unforced errors to Walton’s 12. However, he was able to make up the deficit with his strong play elsewhere to reach his second final of the season.
Shapovalov fell to No. 33 in the ATP rankings last week after dropping his first-round match at Wimbledon to Mariano Navone. He will jump back into the top 30 with his performance in Los Cabos. Walton is projected to jump more than 15 spots to No. 82 after reaching his first tour-level semifinal of the season.
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Feature Photo : Abierto Los Cabos
