(Barcelona) Canadian Denis Shapovalov lost in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 to Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas on Thursday in the third round of the Barcelona Tennis Open.
In a duel that lasted just 76 minutes, Shapovalov was erratic, committing 12 double faults against the No. 5 player in the world and the tournament’s second seed. He hit five aces.
Eight of the double faults of the Canadian, 28th in the ATP rankings, were committed in the first set, including the eighth on a set point.
Shapovalov finished the duel with a 46% success rate on first serves, compared to 66% for Tsitsipas. Also, the Ontarian won only 35% of the points after using a second service ball.
Shapovalov gave his opponent nine break points and flinched four times, twice in each of two sets.
He lost his serve for the first time in the third game of the clash. He was also broken in his last two serve appearances in the second set.
For his part, Tsitsipas only faced two break points, both in the seventh game of the second set, which he managed to erase.
As the 14th seed in the tournament, Shapovalov was granted a bye in the first round. In his second-round match on Wednesday, Shapovalov knocked out Slovak Jozef Kovalik in straight sets 6-4, 6-3.
In the quarter-finals, Tsitsipas will face Australian Alex De Minaur, who reached this stage of the tournament following the withdrawal of Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.
In another third-round game on Thursday, No. 8 Italian Jannik Sinner needed three sets to defeat Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka 6-1, 4-6, 6-3.
