Denis Shapovalov of Toronto, Ontario delivered a significant upset in the second round of the 2025 Dallas Open on Thursday. Shapovalov defeated the first seed, Taylor Fritz of the United States, the 2024 United States Open finalist, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6. In the deciding tiebreak, Shapovalov won by a score of 7-2. Fritz is currently ranked fourth in the world, while Shapovalov is 54th.
Shapovalov, the 2021 Wimbledon semifinalist, had 15 aces compared to only nine for Fritz. The Dallas Open is a 500 event for the first time this year. It was a 250 event from 2022 to 2024.
This is actually the sixth time in 10 meetings Shapovalov has beaten Fritz. Shapovalov also beat Fritz 7-5, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of Delray Beach in 2018, 7-6, 6-3 in the 2019 Davis Cup Finals in Madrid, Spain, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6, 6-2 in the third round of the 2020 United States Open, 7-6, 6-2 in the second round of San Diego in 2021, and 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 in the second round of Vienna in 2022.
Shapovalov will next play Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals on Friday. Machac is the 25th ranked player in the world and the sixth seed in Dallas. This will be their first meeting head to head. The other three quarterfinals have Jaume Munar of Spain versus eighth seed Matteo Arnaldi of Italy, second seed Casper Ruud of Norway versus Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan, and an all-American duo between third seed Tommy Paul and Reilly Opelka.
Shapovalov delivered one of two upsets in Canadian tennis this week. On Monday, Marina Stakusic of Mississauga, Ontario, who is ranked 119th in the world, beat the 64th ranked player, Sorana Cirstea of Romania, 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 in the first round of the Transylvania Open in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Stakusic broke Cirstea five times in 13 opportunities in the match. Stakusic was then beaten 6-3, 7-5 by lucky loser Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus in round two on Wednesday.
