| 2017 Aegon Championships |
| Venue: Queen’s Club, London Dates: 19-25 June |
| Coverage: Comprehensive live coverage on BBC One, BBC Two, Red Button, Connected TV and online daily |
Canadian teenager Denis Shapovalov upset British number two Kyle Edmund with a terrific performance on day one of the Aegon Championships in London.
Shapovalov, 18, won 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 6-4 at Queen’s Club and goes on to face Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych.
This was the biggest win of the Wimbledon junior champion’s burgeoning career, and a setback for Edmund, 22.
The Briton is ranked 146 places higher than Shapovalov at 47th and reached the quarter-finals at Queen’s last year.
“It’s definitely one of the biggest wins,” the Canadian wildcard told BBC Sport.
“Kyle is an unbelievable player.
“It’s just incredible, the feelings I have being able to play on Centre Court like this in front of thousands of people and against such a great player.”
- Kyrgios optimistic after Queen’s injury scare
- Follow Queen’s across the BBC
- Live scores and schedule
Monday’s encounter was a rematch of a Davis Cup contest in February, which ended when Shapovalov was defaulted for hitting a ball in frustration that fractured umpire Arnaud Gabas’s eye socket.
“Before the match I felt pretty tight,” said Shapovalov.
“Once I got into it, it was fine. I didn’t have many thoughts except I was thinking ‘please don’t do anything dumb this match. So many cameras on me’.
“But I didn’t really think about the incident. It was a new match. It’s behind me now.”
Grigor Dimitrov and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also progressed on the opening day at Queen’s, but Nick Kyrgios retired with an injury.
The Australian ninth seed aggravated a hip problem when he slipped at the baseline while playing Donald Young, but is optimistic he will recover for Wimbledon.
Bulgarian sixth seed Dimitrov, champion in 2014, beat American Ryan Harrison 6-3 6-1, and fifth seed Tsonga beat fellow Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 6-2 6-2.
Reigning champion Andy Murray plays compatriot Aljaz Bedene on Tuesday.
Pressure tells on Edmund
With an on-court temperature well in excess of 30C, Shapovalov kept a cooler head with the match on the line against the more experienced Edmund.
The Canadian showed why he is widely tipped to build on last year’s Wimbledon junior title with an impressive display.
His attacking style, swinging left-handed serve and single-handed backhand brought him only his second win on the ATP Tour.
He took a tight opening set on the tie-break before dropping serve to love with a loose game at the start of the second.
Edmund served his way to one set all but was playing catch-up serving second in the decider, and the pressure told.
Two double-faults in a row saw him slip 0-40 – and three match points – down, and Shapovalov converted the third when the Briton framed a forehand.
“He held at four-all, and then I think I made an unforced error on the first point and two double faults. That’s basically it,” said Edmund.
“It doesn’t help when you haven’t got much margin for error if you lose those points. But it’s a tennis match, so I’ve just got to try to not do it again.”
Edmund is playing doubles with Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis at Queen’s Club, and will head to Eastbourne next week for his final tournament before Wimbledon.
The Briton has a 3-10 career record on grass at the top level and has yet to win in four attempts in the main draw at Wimbledon.
“It’s just one match at a time,” he said. “I have lost matches on grass, I have won matches on grass.
“So I don’t think grass has anything to do with it. It’s the same for everyone.”
Source link
