Sixteen-year-old Denis
Shapovalov of Toronto captured the second pro singles title of his career on April 10th
by winning the $25K Memphis Futures tournament in Memphis,Tennessee.
A qualifier, Shapovalov had to
win two matches in qualifying before reaching the first round of the main draw.
He then proceeded to beat three seeded players as he made his way to taking the
title. In the final, he faced the
American, Tennys Sandgrenm the number 2 seed with a world ranking more than 200
spots ahead of Denis. This was a hard court event.
In January Shapovalov won his first
professional singles event, an ITF $10K
Futures tournament played on clay in Weston, Florida. (See photo here with his coach Adriano Fuorivia), Here he also had to play matches
to qualify before working his way through a tough to take the title in straight
sets over Pedro Sakamoto.In March he reached the semi-finals of the $50,000 Challenger
Banque Nationale de Drummondville, where he lost in three sets to Daniel Evans
of Great Britain. With this result he became the first player born in 1999 to
win an ATP challenger match.
The Spring issue of Ontario
Tennis Magazine includes an interview with Denis or Shap as those who know him
refer to him. To see this article go to Ontario Tennis Spring 2016 Shap Attack
