Denis Shapovalov is determined to be a part of the U.S. Open pool. After the USTA decided not to grant the 18-year-old a wild card entry into next week’s tournament, Shapovalov was forced to take the more strenuous route to make his debut at the grand slam event.
The Canadian advanced in his first-round matchup with ease — a 6 3, 6 4 win over Dennis Kudla, setting up Thursday's showdown against Portugal’s Gastao Elias in the second round of qualifying.
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Shapovalov is set to take the court sometime after 11 a.m. Canada will have five representatives in the second round of qualifiying with Felix Auger-Aliassime, Frank Dancevic and Peter Polansky joining him in the men’s bracket. Francoise Abanda will be the lone women’s representative, thanks to her win over Bianca Andreescu.
Elias advanced to face Shapovalov in a grueling three-set match against fellow countryman Goncalo Oliveira. And much like Shapovalov, Elias has strung together his fair share of success in recent weeks.
In his last two ATP events, he has reached the semifinals on both occasions — the Claro Open and the Milex Open, which are apart of the ATP’s Challenger Tour.
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However, those matches were on clay court and not the hard court that Shapovalov has been playing on for the past month.