Denis Shapovalov endured some pretty bad losses recently, but he finally got a good win against Stefanos Tsitsipas at the 2024 Miami Open.
The Greek proclaimed that he was returning to the Top 10 in three weeks ahead of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Miami, but it's not going to happen with the way he's been playing lately.
He hasn't been playing well, suffering multiple disappointing losses in a row. The match in Miami didn't offer anything different because he was quite bad compared to what fans have gotten used to from him.
The only thing that remotely worked for him was the service, but even that was neutralized to a degree by Shapovalov. The Canadian played a really solid match, one of his best in recent months.
Everything simply worked for him. He was very unbothered about his serve because Tsitsipas couldn't challenge him. The Greek player didn't even create one breakpoint chance in the entire match.
The Canadian was also amazing from the baseline, hitting all sorts of crazy angles. He was pretty dead set on being the player who attacked, and it worked out for him. Yes, he had some bad misses, especially on a lot of break points, but he also hit some crazy shots that he hadn't hit in years.
Another shot that worked well for him was the block return. He was returning the ball pretty deep, catching Tsitsipas in all sorts of weird positions. Ultimately, he was just a lot better than his opponent, and the stats paint that picture pretty well.
Shapovalov lost only 3 points behind his first serve all match long and only ten on serve in total. Tsitsipas faced 18 break points, saving 15 of them, and that's only because Shapovalov got really unlucky with some of those.
If you face twice as many breakpoints on your serve than the number of points you win on return, that can't result in a victory, and that's why Tsitsipas lost this match, with Shapovalov winning 6-2, 6-4.
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