Confident Wawrinka Beats Shapovalov In Rotterdam

Stan Wawrinka overcame a second-set comeback on Friday to beat 10th-seeded #NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov 6-4, 7-6(4) for a place in the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament semi-finals.

Wawrinka, the 2015 Rotterdam champion (d. Berdych), awaits the winner of top-seeded Japanese Kei Nishikori, winner of the Brisbane International title (d. Medvedev) last month, or Marton Fucsovics of Hungary. The Swiss leads Nishikori 5-4 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series and leads Fucsovics 2-1 overall.

“Physically I feel really good, and I’m moving and feeling better match after match,” Wawrinka said. “Tonight was a tough match. I had to really fight at the end. I was a bit nervous at the end of the match. We had some long rallies. It’s good to see that I can keep being there, mentally, physically.”

Shapovalov recovered from 15/40 in his second service game, but Wawrinka finally gained the break with a trademark backhand winner to take a 5-4 advantage. Shapovalov struck a backhand into the net to end the 31-minute first set.

Two double faults from Shapovalov handed Wawrinka the first game of the second set and at 1-3 another double fault — one of seven in the match — put the Canadian on the back foot. But a clever drop shot in the sixth game signalled a resurgence and terrific power off the ground at 4-5 resulted in a second break of serve. Shapovalov withstood the pressure once more to recover from 15/40 at 5-5. But Wawrinka pulled away in the tie-break and celebrated the win with a boastful “Allez!”