Denis Shapovalov continued his quest to make the U.S. Open field by defeating Gastao Elias of Portugal 6-3, 7-5 Thursday in the second round of the qualifying tournament. The 18-year-old will play Jan Satral of the Czech Republic in the next round. With a victory over Satral, Shapovalov will qualify for the main draw of the Open, set to begin on Monday.
Along with Shapovalov, Canadians Peter Polansky and Frank Dancevic also advanced in qualifying play on Thursday. Polansky topped Blaž Rola, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, while Dancevic defeated Stéphane Robert, 6-3, 6-7, 7-5. Countryman Felix Auger-Aliassime wasn't as fortunate, losing 7-6, 6-4 to Sergiy Stakhovsky of the Ukraine.
On the women’s side, Françoise Abanda defeated Antonia Lottner in qualifying action.
Shapovalov is coming off of an impressive run at the Rogers Cup earlier this month. He upset the top-seeded Rafael Nadal and advanced all the way to the tournament’s semifinal round before falling to Alexander Zverev. Shapovalov also topped veterans Rogério Dutra da Silva, Juan Martín del Potro and Adrian Mannarino at the Cup.
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"It was tough to believe against Nadal that I would have a chance to win," Shapovalov told Sporting News last week. "He's such a champion, and I'm not a bad player, but just by rankings alone, and by odds, he's way better."
After his performance at the Cup, Shapovalov jumped all the way up to 67th in the ATP rankings. He previously sat in 143rd. Shapovalov is the second-highest ranked Canadian — behind Milos Raonic, who’s currently 10th. Raonic was forced to withdraw from the U.S. Open due to an injury.
"A star is born here in Canada. And he's only 18 years old"
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) August 13, 2017
Thanks for the memories, @denis_shapo... #CoupeRogers pic.twitter.com/T50H7uFIyS
Shapovalov was set to compete at the 2017 Odlum Brown VanOpen in Vancouver last week, but was forced to withdraw after his unexpected run at the Cup.
MORE: 25 Things We Learned from the Denis Shapovalov coming out party
Shapovalov said his ultimate career goals have not changed following his run at the Rogers Cup.
"It's tough to talk about a ceiling," Shapovalov said on the conference call last week. "It's the future — nobody can predict it — but for me the goal I would like to have is to lift a Grand Slam. That would be just ridiculous for me. I know what it would be to be No. 1 in the world. It's too tough to think about what I can achieve."
The qualifying tournament for the season's final grand slam will offer more than $2.9 million in prize money, a 49.2 percent increase from 2016.
E.Jay Zarett contributed to this report