ATP/NextGen Finals: Chick Shapovalov failed prelude

The 18-year-old Canadian Denis Shapovalov suffered an opening defeat in Group A at the ATP NextGen Finals in Milan. Shapovalov was defeated in four sets by Hyeon Chung.

In the second match of the opening day of the NextGen finals in Milan, the high-flyer Denis Shapovalov and the Korean Hyeon Chung confronted each other.

And the 18-year-old Canadian started at a tremendous pace. After only 16 minutes Shapovalov snatched the first set 4:1. But the Korean man with the distinctive sports glasses accelerated his pace and gained more and more self-confidence. The first tiebreak in the match followed at a score of 3:3. A bitter double error at 5:5 cost Shapovalov the second set and Chung equalled. As the length of the game increased, the quality of the lot improved and both players did not give each other a hard time with their own service. The logical tiebreak was once again the Korean player’s turn at the game with 2:1 sets in his direction.

Shapovalov lost the thread after the third set and gave the game away. With slight mistakes on his usual safe forehand he gave Chung the points easily and after 99 minutes he had to admit defeat with 4:1,3:4 (5), 3:4 (5) and 1:4.