Denis Shapovalov completed day three play at the Western & Southern Open with a highly entertaining second-round victory over British No. 14 seed Kyle Edmund. The Canadian recorded his 25th match win of the season, but didn’t have things all his own way in a 6-4, 7-5 win over one hour and 52 minutes on Tuesday night.
Shapovalov was aggressive on return, with his backhand return often putting Edmund on the defensive in their sixth FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting of the past 18 months (Shapovalov leads 4-2). Edmund rallied from 0-4 down in second set, saved a match point on his own serve at 4-5 and then saved another three at 5-6, before Shapovalov converted his fifth match point opportunity with backhand volley.
Watch Two Shapovalov Hot Shots
The 19-year-old Shapovalov will now challenge fellow Canadian Milos Raonic, the 2014 and 2016 semi-finalist, or Malek Jaziri, a lucky loser from Tunisia. Raonic knocked out Serbian qualifier Dusan Lajovic 6-3, 6-3 in the first round earlier in the day. Shapovalov beat Raonic 6-4, 6-4 in the Mutua Madrid Open third round in May and has never met Jaziri.
Elsewhere, Germany’s Mischa Zverev will play fifth seed and defending champion Grigor Dimitrov in the second round after knocking out Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia and Herzegovina 6-3, 6-4.
