Denis Shapovalov is playing some of his best tennis of the year at the end of 2024 and finds himself in his first semifinal of the season after easily beating Australia’s Christopher O’Connell on Thursday in the quarter-finals of the ATP 250 event in Belgrade, Serbia.
It was one-way traffic for the Canadian in the quarter-final clash, who broke early and never looked back on his way to a 6-2, 6-2 win in 71 minutes. He has already won five matches this week in Belgrade, having come through qualifying to get into the main draw.
Inconsistency on serve has haunted Shapovalov at times this season but that was not the case on Thursday as he put 74 per cent of his first serves in play and won 91 per cent of those points, losing just three. He struck a dozen aces to just two doubles faults and saved the only two break points he faced.
Shapovalov wasted no time in asserting himself, applying pressure in O’Connell’s opening serving game and was handed the immediate break when the Aussie double-faulted.
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O’Connell had a look to get the break back at 2-1 when some errors crept into the Canadian’s game and he found himself facing a pair of break points. However, he wiped both away with some impressive hitting before finding another gear on serve.
His double fault to set up the second break point was the last point Shapovalov would lose on his own serve for over half an hour. He won his next 18 points in a row on serve, including all of his remaining service points in the first set, until finally double-faulting serving up a break at 2-1, 40-love in the second set.
Those looks at break point in the fourth game of the first set were O’Connell’s only break chances in the match. Everything was clicking for Shapovalov as he dominated from both the baseline and the net. The Canadian broke again to take a 5-2 lead where he promptly served out the set to love, delivering three unreturnable serves and a forehand winner in the final game.
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The second set started off the same way as the first, with Shapovalov breaking in the opening game. There was no glimmer of hope for O’Connell in the second as the Canadian continued to clip along on serve. He took a stranglehold on the match with a break in the fifth game when the Aussie netted a forehand. That second break was the final nail in the coffin as Shapovalov rode his serve to the finish line.
Standing between Shapovalov and his first final since October 2022 will be fourth seed Jiri Lehecka. The Czech won their lone previous meeting back in February 2022, also on indoor hard courts in Rotterdam.