“I just try to be focused if the case [is] that we have to continue playing. And then finally Novak [gives] me the hand. That’s it,” he said in his post-match press conference.
Meanwhile, before world No 12 Denis Shapovalov was known as one of the top players on tour, he first made a name for himself when he accidentally hit an umpire in the eye during a Davis Cup match when he was just 17.
While facing Kyle Edmund in Canada’s Ryder Cup tie vs Great Britain, Shapovalov fired a ball in anger which inadvertently hit chair umpire Arnaud Gabas in the eye, and the teenager was disqualified from the match, with the ITF later fining him but acknowledging the incident was unintentional.
The umpire later had surgery to repair a fractured eye socket, and Shapovalov later revealed the pair had become “friends”, messaging one another from time to time.
