Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal, Quebec, and Denis Shapovalov of Toronto, Ontario are making more history at the 2022 Australian Open. For the first time, two Canadian men reached the semifinals in men’s singles of the same Australian Open.
Shapovalov, the 14th seed, came through on Sunday with an impressive 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 win over the world number three, Alexander Zverev of Germany in only two hours and 21 minutes. It was a very sloppy match by Zverev, the reigning Olympic gold medalist from the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021. Zverev only had 18 winners the entire match, compared to 35 for Shapovalov, and was extremely frustrated with his poor performance. At the beginning of the second set, Zverev smashed his racket and received a code violation.
Auger-Aliassime, the ninth seed, beat the 27th ranked Marin Cilic of Croatia, 2-6, 7-6, 6-2, 7-6. Cilic had 60 unforced errors, compared to only 31 for Auger-Aliassime. Cilic seemed agitated by the amount of time Auger-Aliassime was taking to serve. However, it was Cilic who received a warning at the beginning of the fourth set tiebreak.
Shapovalov next plays 20-time grand slam champion Rafael Nadal of Spain in the quarterfinals. Shapovalov beat Nadal 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 in the third round of the 2017 Rogers Cup from Montreal, Quebec. Auger-Aliassime next plays world number two Daniil Medvedev of Russia, the 2021 U.S. Open champion.
