Dimitrov Wins, Shapovalov Delights

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Dimitrov Wins, Shapovalov Delights

Denis Shapovalov made waves on the other side of the pond in July when he took the Wimbledon Boys’ singles title. A few weeks later he made even bigger waves in Canada, upsetting Nick Kyrgios in the first round of the Rogers Cup.

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The 17-year-old Canadian’s luck would run out on Wednesday night in Toronto, but before he fell to Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets, the hard-hitting southpaw brought the crowd to its feet with this remarkable bit of improvisation (see video above).

Shapovalov has a big attitude to go with his big game. "I love playing on a big stage," he said after his win over Kyrgios on Tuesday. "At the start I didn't kind of know how to act. It's tough playing the first time on center court. But by the end of the match, I felt like the crowd really liked it when I was getting pumped up."

But he’s also a humble player, who looks forward to the work ahead. After his loss to Dimitrov, the Ontario native reflected on an amazing tournament, but he also stressed that there’s a lot to work on. “I think I really need to improve my serve,” he said. “I thought I had a good serve until I played Kyrgios who was just bombing aces past me. Same with Dimitrov. He was blocking my serve back like nothing when I was putting it in. I think my percentage wasn't very high today. I'd say my serve and just a little more experience. You know, I felt like Grigor really figured me out after -- you could see he really thinks during the match. He changes a lot of things up.”

The 17-year-old should crack the Top 300 and says he plans to play two Challengers in Canada in the upcoming months. After that, more hard work.

“I'm not looking too much forward ahead after that, but I think I'm going to have a training phase,” he said. “I've played so many matches this year already, so a little down time off is going to be good for me, I think.”

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