Shapovalov Stuns Kyrgios In Toronto

Teenage wild card Denis Shapovalov has produced the biggest upset of his young career, taking down No. 11 seed Nick Kyrgios in the opening round of the Rogers Cup.

The 17 year old, who won the Boys’ Singles Title at Wimbledon earlier this month, made the most of his main draw opportunity to defeat the Australian 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-3 in one hour and 40 minutes.

“Nick is an incredible tennis player. He’s Top 20 in the world. Maybe even future No. 1 in the world,” Shapovalov said. “So obviously I didn’t expect to win. But like I said before, I’m just going to go fight for every point. That’s what I did. The outcome was very good today.”

Buoyed by the Toronto crowd, the young Canadian brought up match point with his 12^th ace and closed it out to book a second-round meeting with former Top 10 player Grigor Dimitrov.

“I love playing on a big stage. I love impressing people,” said Shapovalov, who requested to play on Centre Court. “It was very fun for me.”

Both players saved eight of 10 break points faced but Kyrgios was let down by 18 double faults. Shapovalov had just four.

“He’s coming off of one of the best results of his career. He has a great future,” Kyrgios said. “I’m really looking forward to seeing how he’s going to progress… He’s a top player.”

Earlier, Dimitrov produced an impressive escape to deny Japan’s Yuichi Sugita 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-4 in two hours and 29 minutes.

The Bulgarian trailed a set and a break and was down 3/5 in the second-set tie-break before forcing the deciding set. He landed the crucial break for 3-2 in the third and sealed it on his first match point.

American Sam Querrey also advanced to the second round on Monday, winning almost 90 per cent of his first-serve points to beat Canadian wild card Frank Dancevic 7-6(5), 6-4 in an hour and 27 minutes.