First Semifinal Defined: Shapovalov vs Walton
- The Canadian advances smoothly in his debut week in Los Cabos.
- Australian James Duckworth lost to doubles partner Adam Walton
Los Cabos, July 17, 2025 – Canadian Denis Shapovalov continues his dream week in Los Cabos, in search of his second title of the season. The third seed of The Mifel Tennis Open by Telcel Oppo opened the fourth day of the ATP 250 with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Tristan Schoolkate in one hour and 18 minutes at the Mextenis Stadium.
The world No. 110 had just surprised German Daniel Altmaier in the round of 16, but against Shapovalov, No. 33 of the PIF ATP Rankings, he couldn’t find the formula. Despite losing his serve in the third game, ‘Shapo’ was superior to the Australian in effectiveness (64% over 37%), he managed six aces in the first set of 33 minutes and four for the second that required 45 minutes.
“I think what I do well is to go for every shot, I had a shaky start I was losing 3-1 and missed a lot of shots by very little, it’s easy to get tense at that moment and try to put the ball in, that’s not good for my game and I become very predictable, so I’m happy to continue and to have gone for the shots, they started to click and I felt I was controlling the match,” he assured after his victory.
It was the first meeting between the two and despite the fact that the Canadian arrived on Monday from the grass season and with the pressure of adapting to the conditions of Los Cabos, his tennis has looked solid.
“The first two matches have been great, obviously I didn’t expect to play so well, it’s the first time I was participating in this tournament. The first match was very tough, so I’m very happy with how I’m doing in everything,” concluded Shapovalov.
Later on the Grandstand, the Australian pair of James Duckworth and Adam Walton faced off in singles for the first time and Walton claimed victory after a two-hour three-set battle 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
The eighth seed, who eliminated Mexico’s Rodrigo Pacheco in the first round and Nishesh Basavareddy in the second, lost his serve at 4-2 and was unable to recover the first set. And although he started the second set in the same way, he managed to break Duckworth twice, in addition to backing himself with the points won with his serve since his opponent committed 14 unforced errors.
In the third set he hit 6 aces out of 10 in total, recovered once again his lost serve in the first game to make it 3-3 and then broke to make it 4-3 and hold on to the lead.
The last chapter required 55 minutes of dueling, half of the entire match. He now seeks a place in the final against Shapovalov in the first semifinal of a brilliant week for the Australian.