On Monday night at the National Bank Open presented by Rogers, Denis Shapovalov was four points away from elimination when the rain came down.
He was trailing Australian Alex de Minaur 7-5, 6-6, 3-3 when the weather forced the players to head back to the locker room and tournament organizers to cancel the session.
Mediocre, nervous and erratic in the first set, Shapo had only a lukewarm response to the crowd’s cheers. The nagging drive to repeat his 2017 upset against Rafael Nadal and reach the semis of the Masters 1000 caused him to drop the first set.
In the second, he regained his power and precision on serve and even got a break ahead, but the upturn didn’t last and he was immediately broken by the combative Australian.
The 23-year-old Canadian will now have to wait until Tuesday to try to get back on track and put on the show we’ve come to expect from him.
Two other singles matches were decided before the downpour. In the first, Karen Khachanov of Russia fought hard to oust Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina. The nearly three-hour match (2:43) ended 7-6(4), 5-7, 6-3.
Jenson Brooksby, one of the top American prospects, defeated the unpredictable Alexander Bublik in straight sets (6-2, 6-3).
Finally, Jamie Murray of Great Britain and Bruno Soares of Brazil fell to John Peers of Australia and Daniel Evans of Great Britain in a super tiebreak (4-6, 6-3, 10-5).
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