Shapovalov deflects in Wimbledon’s Round of 16 as last Canadian standing in singles
Canada’s Denis Shapovalov was dropped from the men’s draw at Wimbledon after losing to Russia’s Roman Safiullin in the fourth round and four sets on Sunday in London.
Safiullin, ranked 92nd in the world, defeated Shapovalov, from Richmond Hill, Ont., 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 on the All England Club’s No. 2 Court.
26th-seeded Shapovalov committed 11 double faults and won only one of three break points.
Safiullin, who won 75 percent of his first serves, made up five of nine break point opportunities.
LOOK | Shapovalov falls to Safiullin:
The Canadian struggled after taking the opening set and appeared to be limping the entire game.
The men’s quarterfinals set for Sunday were No. 7 Andrey Rublev against Novak Djokovic or No. 17 Hubert Hurkacz, and No. 8 Jannik Sinner against Safiullin.
Shapovalov was the last Canadian standing in singles after Bianca Andreescu fell to Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur in the third round on Saturday.
The 24-year-old said he would rather not have surgery on the knee injury that hampered his defeat, but admitted he needs to take a break from tennis to deal with the problem.
Shapovalov said his knee had been bothering him since his run-up to the final of the ATP 500 Vienna Open last October.
“It’s been on and off since Vienna last year…,” Shapovalov told reporters.
“I definitely considered skipping all clay and most of the grass and just going to Wimbledon, but it sounded much more fun, you know, to play Roland Garros and then play grass.
Shapovalov said it would likely take at least two months to treat the injury, adding: “Hopefully no surgery. Obviously with surgery it would take much longer.
“After today it’s a bit difficult. Quite a big setback. By the end of the game I couldn’t even walk let alone play.
“That’s probably the worst it’s been in a long time. I need to talk to the team. I need to try and see some more specialists and see what I can do.”
Fernandez, American partner eliminated in doubles
Also on Sunday, Leylah Fernandez, of Laval, Que., and American partner Taylor Townsend were eliminated from women’s doubles after losing their second-round match 6-4, 7-6, 6-3 to France’s Caroline Garcia and Luisa Stefani from Brazil.
Fernandez and Dutch partner Wesley Koolhof advanced to the second round in the mixed doubles with a 7-5, 7-5 victory over Angel Chan of Taiwan and Fabrice Martin of France on Sunday.
Fernandez and Koolhof then play the British duo Jonny O’Mara and Olivia Nicholls.
Swiatek saves ticket to quarterfinals
Top-seeded Iga Swiatek saved two match points on Sunday to reach the quarterfinals of Wimbledon for the first time with a 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-3 victory over Belinda Bencic on Center Court.
Swiatek has won three championships at Roland Garros and one at the US Open, but she had never progressed past the fourth round at the All England Club. Last year, she had snapped a 37-match winning streak in a third-round loss at Wimbledon.
So comfortable on the red clay of Paris, so capable on the hard courts in New York – and at the Australian Open, where she reached the semifinals – Swiatek is just not quite the same player, but on the green grass used in the third Grand Slam tournament of the year.
Against the great Bencic, the singles gold medalist at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Swiatek certainly had her chances of taking control much sooner than she did.
Six times in the first set she had a break point, but failed to cash in. Twice came when she was one point away from possession of the first set while leading 5–4, but after Swiatek also failed to convert, Bencic found himself in a tiebreak. and raced to a 6-1 lead before sealing it.
Iga for more.
World number 1 @iga_swiatek defeated Belinda Bencic 6-7(4), 7-6(2), 6-3 in a match that lasted over three hours ⏱# Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/BNQogDqP6t
Swiatek went to the locker room after that set and immediately appeared to be back at her best, eventually breaking and eventually going up 3-1. But she let that advantage slip, dropping the next three games and suddenly having to clear that pair of match points while trailing 6-5.
Once past that important stretch, Swiatek set things straight in that tiebreaker. From 2-all, she took five consecutive points, the last of which was a double fault by Bencic, to send the match to a third set.
Bencic cried out after missing a forehand to hand over a break point, then double fouled for the 10th time to give Swiatek another 3-1 lead in the deciding set. Swiatek protected that margin this time, and 23 minutes later—about an hour after she lost a point—she punched the air after delivering a cross-court forehand winner to end it all.
Svitolina, a 2019 Wimbledon semifinalist who had a baby last October and returned to the tour in April, advanced on Sunday by beating two-time main champion Victoria Azarenka 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (11-9 ).
The other quarterfinal on the top half of the women’s series is No. 4 Jessica Pegula vs. No. 4 Jessica Pegula. 2019 French Open runner up Marketa Vondrousova.
