Denis Shapovalov is now in the men’s semifinals of the 2019 Rolex Paris Masters indoor tennis tournament from France. On Friday in the men’s quarterfinals, Shapovalov destroyed hometown favourite Gael Monfils 6-2, 6-2 in just 59 minutes.
It is just not that Shapovalov beat Monfils that deserves high praise. It is the way he beat the 13th ranked Frenchman who will move into the top 10 in the world by reaching the quarterfinals in Paris. Shapovalov dictated play from start to finish, took the crowd out of the match with his four breaks of serve and won 82% of the points on his serve.
Shapovalov’s performance could have been considered one of the most dominant performances by a Canadian against an elite tennis player in recent memory. In the fourth round of the 2019 Australian Open, Milos Raonic beat Alexander Zverev of Germany 6-1, 6-1, 7-6, but the third set in this particular match was extremely competitive. Shapovalov literally steamrolled Monfils and he was never in the match at all.
Shapovalov will now play Rafael Nadal of Spain, the second seed, in the semifinal. Nadal and Shapovalov have played twice against each other with both players winning once. Shapovalov’s win came at the 2017 Rogers Cup in Montreal where he upset Nadal 3-6, 6-4, 7-6. The other semifinal in Paris has first ranked Novak Djokovic of Serbia up against Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria.
