In a shocking development at the 2017 Rogers Cup, Denis Shapovalov defeated Rafael Nadal in the round of sixteen on Thursday night. The result knocks Nadal out of the tournament two rounds ahead of the semifinals. Had Nadal made it to the final four in Montreal then he would have overtaken Andy Murray for the top spot. However, Murray will remain there come Monday regardless of how Roger Federer does in the balance of the tournament. The Swiss Maestro is into the quarterfinals himself in Canada, but cannot catch Murray in the rankings on Monday even if Federer should win the title.
Shapovalov came out of nowhere
Shapovalov is a Canadian teenager and, before Thursday night, he was perhaps best known for his on-court folly where he hit inadvertently hit a tennis ball into the face of an umpire. Earlier in the draw, he took out Juan Martin del Potro, a result that was surprising enough in itself. However, that victory wasn't too head turning simply because del Potro has not been anything amazing this season.
Heading into the round of sixteen Nadal's chances of making the quarterfinals appeared to be excellent. But the Canadian would battle back from a set down and from 0-3 down in the deciding tiebreaker. What resulted was an amazing upset for the youngster, a player currently ranked well outside of the top 100 on tour.
With a quarterfinal match against Adrian Mannarino coming up on Friday and perhaps a semifinal against Alexander Zverev on Saturday, there is a career opportunity at hand for someone in Canada. Shapovalov is one of the players in the mix, but Mannarino has battled for years on tour and will not give up his chance to make the semifinals and possibly the final.
Murray will miss Cincinnati, will lose top spot
Murray's fall from the top of the rankings will only be temporarily delayed. He will add another week for certain, and that will give him 41 as a total. It does give him enough weeks to pass Ilie Nastase in the all-time cumulative weeks as the top-ranked player. But Murray announced that he would miss Cincinnati not long ago.
In doing so, Murray will fall out of top spot for certain with the August 21st rankings.
Nadal does not need to do any work in Cincinnati to pass Murray because the Scot made the final there last season and will lose 600 ranking points. But that doesn't mean that Nadal will be No. 1 as Roger Federer is still in the picture. The Swiss Maestro may yet win Montreal, and he may do well enough in Cincinnati to claim the No. 1 ranking even before the start of the 2017 US Open.
