A 6-4, 6-1 margin is borderline close by Rafael Nadal’s recent clay-court standards. Thursday’s contest with Denis Shapovalov was not as close as the score suggested.
Losing a grand total of five points in eight service games, Nadal crushed Shapovalov in one hour and 22 minutes during third-round action at the the Internazionali BNL d’Italia. With the victory, the world No. 2 booked his spot alongside Italy’s own Fabio Fognini in the quarterfinals.
Shapovalov managed to briefly stay on even terms–at least according to the score–by saving three break points in the opening game of the match and five more at 1-1 in the first set. But it was all over for the 19-year-old Canadian when he put a backhand in the net on break point at 3-3. Nadal closed out the opener on serve the rest of the way before breaking his opponent three times in the second set.
The top-seeded Spaniard faced no break points, never even went to deuce on his serve, and was extended to 40-30 only once.
Shapovalov had been one of just three active players to hold a winning head-to-head record against Nadal, having pulled off a three-set upset at last year’s Rogers Cup in Montreal. But the world No. 29 did not own home-court advantage this time around, nor did he have a hard court under his feet. Unsurprisingly, European clay proved to be a whole different story.
Fognini, who ousted Dominic Thiem in the second round, maintained momentum by beating Peter Gojowyczk 6-4, 6-4 on Thursday. Nadal leads their head-to-head series 10-3, including 1-0 in Rome following a 6-1, 6-3 blowout in 2013. Fognini picked up all three of his wins in 2015, but the 16-time Grand Slam champion has since won five in a row.
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nice one, Rafa
Shaps hardly made contact with the ball when Rafa served. I think Denis will learn where his game is at in respect of the top guys after this match today. Hitting every ball as explosively as possible doesn’t work, he should ask Gulbis. Denis made a truckload of UEs on his serve and just managed to hang on to his first 3 servis games in the first set by sheer luck.
The gulf between them was very evident today; Rafa was just so superior in every aspect and lost just 5 points on his serve!
Phenomenadal!