Denis Shapovalov of Toronto, Ontario and Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal, Quebec have each reached the quarterfinals in separate ATP 500 events this week. Shapovalov is in the final eight of the Dubai Duty Free Championships, while Auger-Aliassime is in the final eight of the Mexican Open in Acapulco.
In Dubai, Shapovalov, who is seeded third, has beaten Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany 6-1, 6-3, in the first round, and the 13th seed Hubert Hurkacz of Poland 6-4, 6-3 in the second round. In the two matches, Shapovalov has broken his opponent seven times in all, and has not yet been broken. Struff, who normally plays Canadian tennis players very difficult, has a win over fellow Canadian Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ontario this year. That came during the ATP Cup in Melbourne, where Struff won 7-6, 7-6 in two straight tiebreakers. Next up for Shapovalov is Jeremy Chardy of France on Thursday.
In Mexico, Auger-Aliassime, who is seeded seventh, has beaten two Americans in reaching the quarterfinals. In the first round, Auger-Aliassime defeated Tennys Sandgren 6-3, 7-6, and then beat Sebastian Korda 6-3, 6-4 in the second round.
In the quarterfinals, Auger-Aliassime will have a tough test on Thursday. He is up against the tournament’s number one seed, Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece. Head-to-head, Auger-Aliassime and Tsitsipas have beaten each other twice. Auger-Aliassime’s wins came in the second round of Indian Wells in 2019, 6-4, 6-2, and in the quarterfinals of the 2019 Queen’s Club, 7-5, 6-2.
