Canadian Denis Shapovalov finally snapped his six-game losing streak by winning the first round of the Wimbledon tennis tournament on Tuesday.
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He will need to be much more convincing overall if he hopes to extend his run at the All England Club.
The Ontarian struggled ahead of Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech, 62e world player, whom he defeated in five rounds requiring more than three hours of play. Certainly, the 13e top seed in the competition has taken a step back on the path to success.
After all, he hadn’t won in men’s singles since the round of 16 in Rome.
Except that he has an interest in reducing errors, especially double faults; he accumulated a dozen against his rival in France.
“It hasn’t been easy over the past few weeks. I learned many lessons, he told the Montreal Journal at the dawn of the third major of the season. I focus on being ready for the tournament. I had good feelings here last year. I feel good on the field.”
Now he will have ATP No. 56-ranked American Brandon Nakashima as his next rival on Thursday.
The two men will be at their first career clash on the professional circuit and even if “Shapo” will be the favorite to triumph, he will have to raise his level of play.
“I’m very happy with the way I played in the crucial moments. In general, I am very satisfied with my game today,” he however declared after his day at work on Tuesday.
Even though the ATP doesn’t offer ranking points for Wimbledon this year, Shapovalov would like to repeat his exploits on English grass last year, when he reached the semi-finals of the event.
Andreescu on the rise
For her part, the Canadian Bianca Andreescu had a much easier start and she obviously wants the trend to continue on Thursday, when she will face the Kazakh Elena Rybakina, 65th racket in the WTA.
Who knows if she will be able to rewrite the history of Canadian tennis by improving her performances?
The 2020 U.S. Open champion and current No. 56 player in the world wants to build on the momentum gained at the tournament in Bad Homburg, Germany, where she played in the final last weekend.