Denis Shapovalov’s upset win over Rafael Nadal in the third round of the Rogers Cup on Wednesday was not only the biggest win of his career, but one of the biggest upsets in recent tennis history.
For starters, the 18-year-old Canadian became the youngest player to defeat a top two-ranked player in a complete match since Nadal himself did it when he was 17 against Roger Federer in 2004.
Shapovalov is also the youngest player to reach the quarter-finals at a ATP Masters 1,000 event. And he is the second-youngest player to beat Nadal, ever.
The loss was a rare misstep on a resurgent season for Nadal, who missed much of 2016 with a wrist injury. He reached the Australian Open final, won the French Open and had a 46-7 record in 2017 heading into Thursday’s match.
His season was going so well that if Nadal had reached the semifinals in Montreal, he would have jumped Andy Murray for the No. 1 ranking in the world, a position he hasn’t held since 2014.
But Shapovalov denied him of that, too. And now he’ll be the one making the big jump in the rankings.
Shapovalov entered the tournament ranked 143 in the world. With the win, he’ll move up to No. 100.
But if he beats Adrian Mannarino in the quarter-finals, Shapovalov could be ranked as high as No. 66 by the end of the week.
[relatedlinks]
