Taylor Fritz vs. Denis Shapovalov
Fritz is 27 and Shapovalov 25, but there has always been a sense, at least to me, that they’ve measured themselves against each other. Despite being the younger of the two, the Canadian broke through earlier and won their first three meetings. Then Shapo had to watch as the American rose into the Top 10 at the same time that he was falling out of the Top 100. By 2023, after a lot of tight matches between the two, Fritz asserted his authority when he won both of their matches—one of which took place in Miami—in fairly routine, 6-4, 6-4 fashion.
Then, last month, an unseeded Shapovalov ambushed a top-seeded Fritz in Dallas, coming back from a set down to win in a deciding tiebreaker. That victory, Shapo said, gave him a jolt of confidence that took him all the way to his first 500-level title. By tournament’s end, he was playing some of the best tennis of his career. He stayed hot at the 500 in Acapulco, where he made the semis.
