Thursday, Jan 20, 2022. 11:59 AM
RDS2 and RDS Direct present the match between Denis Shapovalov and Reilly Opelka around 10 p.m. tonight.
Canadian Denis Shapovalov faces a tough challenge tonight in the third round of the Australian Open, as he takes on American Reilly Opelka for a place in the round of 16.
The match is currently in progress on RDS2.
Pre-game notes
At the first tour, Shapovalov, 14e world player, needed 3 hours and 23 minutes to beat Serbian Laslo Djere. A walkover compared to his second round match.
The Ontarian defeated South Korean Kwon Soon-woo after a battle lasting almost 4:30 and five sets.
The 23rd-seeded Opelka had a much easier run into round three, picking up three-set wins over Kevin Anderson in round one and Dominik Koepfer in round two. The big-serving American isn’t very prone to trading, with 41 aces in his first two games in Melbourne.
This will be the first meeting between the two players. The winner will face the winner of the duel between the 3rd player in the world, the German Alexander Zverev, and the Moldovan Radu Albot, a player from the qualifications.
Shapovalov approaches the first Grand Slam tournament of the year with some momentum, having won the men’s ATP Cup earlier this month in Sydney, alongside Canadian teammates Felix Auger-Aliassime, Brayden Schnur and Steven Diez.
Fatigue from a recent bout of COVID-19 forced Shapovalov out of the tournament early on, but he said earlier this week he was back to 100%.
“Towards the end of the ATP Cup, I was really comfortable and my body felt good again, so that was a good sign. And, of course, before this tournament I had small pains, so I didn’t train too much, but I’m really happy after the two games that my body feels good and that’s definitely a good sign. »
