Bernabé Zapata fell to Shelton in the first round of the Toronto Master 1000. Despite the struggle, the Spaniard was met with some daring tennis from the American. The victory code was 7-6 and 6-4.
The Spanish Bernabé Zapata (64th ATP) makes his debut at the Toronto Master 1000. With this tournament he begins the North American tour, the draw for the draw forced him to face the new sensation of American tennis, the 20-year-old Ben Shelton (41st ATP). Both players have different playing styles. Bernabé, as a good Spaniard, has a fierce game and a lot of fighting, despite his height, he moves incredible and his counterattacks are penetrating. On the American side we can find a highly creative player, with a lot of freshness and colorful tennis.
The two players reached their best ranking position this season. The Spaniard had an incredible South American tour with outstanding performances in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, reaching the semifinals of both tournaments. Shelton had a good start to the season reaching the quarterfinals of the Australia Open, from then on it would be very difficult for him to win two consecutive games.
Shelton breaks the first set
The match began with three consecutive breaks, after the return of the break, the Spaniard would be the first to hold his serve. From then on, each player was able to hold his serve with a certain “comfort”, Shelton sought to open the court and constantly play to empty spaces, meanwhile, the Spaniard sought to counterattack from the back of the court. The initial advantage allowed Zapata to reach the end of the set 5-4 up and serve, but a string of hits from the return allowed the American to tie the score at 5-5. Finally the first set was defined in a tie-break. Shelton’s good feelings allowed him to come out very loose in the tiebreaker, in the definition he imposed a quick game that allowed him to win the tie-break 7-6(2) . The American made 24 winners against 3 for the Spanish. A tennis from less to more that put him one set away from victory.
The American takes hold
The second sleeve would maintain parity until 3-3. After the first set, Shelton got a confidence boost. He started to play a lot more aggressive tennis and started going up to the net. The American was more lucid with his ideas and that allowed him to break Zapata’s serve and take the 3-2 lead. But Bernabé quickly reacted and managed a counterbreak and equalized the score at 4-4. But the joy did not last long for the Spaniard, the American with daring tennis pressured him from the return and he broke again to be 5-4 and serve. Finally Shelton closes the set and the match. In the second set he needed a 6-4 to prevail.
2023-08-09 02:16:15
#Zapata #goodbye #Toronto #falling #Shelton
