Canada Denis Shapovalov finished a giant race on Sunday as Dallas Open, beating Casper Ruud 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 for its third ATP crown of the third career.
The Shapovalov Non Set has become the fifth player since 2020 to eliminate the three series heads on the way to an ATP title and the fourth player since 2009 to beat three rivals among the first 10 on the way to a title of 250 or 500.
Shapovalov ousted two favorites from home to home earlier, sending the world number four Taylor Fritz in the second round and ousting the defending champion of ninth, Tommy Paul in the semi-finals.
The 500 level trophy was the largest in Shapovalov’s career after the victories in Stockholm in 2018 and last November in Belgrade and has been intervening after a riposte of injuries since mid-2023.
“I was confronted with difficult injuries with the knee. It was a long road,” said Shapovalov.
“Lut to get titles, to obtain this momentum which returns to the field, but my team and the people close to me continued me, continued to get back on the right track every time I fell and these titles, Belgrade and this one would certainly not be possible without them. “
Shapovalov will jump 22 places at 32nd in the ATP ranking next week. He had 127th at this stage last year.
Shapovalov pulled 12 of his 13 aces in the first set and has never faced a break point, but has always had a battle to claim an equality break on the second Ruud seeded, which did not that eight uncomposed errors in the set.
Ruud failed a forehand from the wide cross area for the hand Shapovalov an edge of 5-4 in the equality break and went for a long time with a reverse to make two section points.
Ruud recorded the first on a winner of the net cord, but then marked a forehand in hand Shapovalov the opening set.
Shapovalov broke out in the second match of the second set and had two other ruptured breaks on Ruud in the fourth before Europeans were 3-1.
Shapovalov used three drop-shot winners to hold for an advantage of 4-1, maintained at 5-2 and captured the match after an hour and 40 minutes with an air smash.
“Incredible efforts all week,” said Ruud about Shapovalov. “Delighted to see you again play so well. A little boring today but really great.”
Ruud lost for the first time in three meetings with Shapovalov, who denied the Norwegian a 13th ATP title in career.
Shapovalov castigated 46 winners at 31 unrefined errors while Ruud made 23 winners and only 14 uncomposed errors.
JS / RCW
