Ontario’s Denis Shapovalov saw his career come to an abrupt end at the French Open.
The noh 1 Carlos Alcaraz made short work of the 26-ranked Canadiane seed, winning 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 in a third-round duel on Friday.
After a quick first run, won in 35 minutes by Alcaraz, Shapovalov was able to get into the rhythm. The 24-year-old tennis player even took a 4-1 lead, before seeing the Spanish sensation overthrow him.
Shapovalov continued to struggle in the third set. He offered another break point to his rival with his eighth double fault of the game, then converted it for Alcaraz committing a ninth.
On serve for the match, Alcaraz made Shapovalov run as he had managed to do throughout the game. On his second match point, he put pressure on his rival by going up to the net and Shapovalov sent the ball into the net.
The match ultimately lasted two hours and 10 minutes.
Shapovalov committed 10 double faults, against only one for Alcaraz, who converted seven of 16 break points obtained.
In the fourth round, Alcaraz will cross swords with Italian Lorenzo Musetti, who defeated Briton Cameron Norrie 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.
Fernandez vs Dabrowski
About six weeks ago, Quebec’s Leylah Fernandez and Ontario’s Gabriela Dabrowski teamed up to win Canada the Billie-Jean-King Cup. Now, here they are, getting ready to be rivals.
Fernandez and Dabrowski will find themselves on either side of the net in a third round match of the French Open women’s doubles.
Dabrowski and his Brazilian partner Luisa Stefani, seeded eighth in the tournament, advanced to the next round on Friday with a three-set victory of 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 over the tandem of Dalma Galfi, from Hungary, and Katarzyna Piter from Poland.
The match was mostly down to service, with Dabrowski and Stefani only committing one double fault, compared to 15 for their opponents. Galfi and Piter only completed 49 percent of their first serves.
For their part, Fernandez and the American Taylor Townsend, 10are seeded converted five of their eight break chances en route to a convincing 6-2, 6-1 win over Taiwan’s Fang-Hsien Wu and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel.
Fernandez and Townsend have enjoyed success since they began their partnership last March. They reached the Miami Open final and the Madrid Open semi-finals, both WTA 1000 tournaments.
Dabrowski and Stefani have appeared in three quarter-final matches this season, including two at WTA 1000 tournaments.
In addition, Dabrowski also triumphed in mixed doubles, along with the American Nathaniel Lammons. In a first-round match, they got the better of the French duo of Chloé Paquet and Lucas Pouille 6-7 (3), 6-2 (10-8).
Ontario’s Bianca Andreescu also reached the first round in mixed doubles along with Australian Michael Venus. They defeated American Nicole Melichar-Martinez and German Kevin Krawietz 2-6, 6-1 (10-8).