ATP: Shapovalov confident after defeating Raonic in Madrid

Denis Shapovalov won the Canadian duel against Milos Raonic at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Madrid. Now it’s against a man the left-handed man already knows well: Kyle Edmund.

For the fact that Denis Shapovalov has only been on the ATP tour for a good year, the Canadian has already had a rather eventful history with Kyle Edmund: They have already played four matches against each other, two of them did not go over the full distance. In the Davis Cup quarter-finals in 2017, Shapovalov accidentally shot the referee off his chair and was disqualified. At the US Open in the same year Edmund had to give up due to injury.

The fifth match in Madrid on Friday will be for a place in the semi-finals. Either John Isner will be waiting there. Or Alexander Zverev. Shapovalov has already played against him in a semi-final round of an ATP Masters 1000 tournament last summer in Montréal. Zverev left the field as the winner, clinching the title with his final victory over Roger Federer.

Shapovalov won a purely internal Canadian affair in the last match, beating Milos Raonic 6-4 and 6-4 after 83 minutes and then paying his countryman the utmost respect. “He is such a great legend in our homeland,” said the left-handed man about Raonic. “He has dominated the sport in our country and in the world. I’ve always looked up to him.” Beating a player like him would give him even more confidence for the tasks ahead.

And Kyle Edmund could become the most difficult hurdle in Madrid so far: After all, the British number one not only kicked Novak Djokovic out of the tournament, but David Goffin as well. And this in a similarly convincing manner to Shapovalov’s role model Raonic.

Here the single tableau in Madrid