(Reuters) – Denis Shapovalov takes on Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta for a place in the U.S. Open semi-finals on Tuesday and the 21-year-old expects another difficult outing against an opponent who has dominated him on hard courts.
Shapovalov, who is seeking a first Grand Slam semi-final spot, has lost three of his four matches against Carreno Busta with his only victory coming on clay — a surface that the Spaniard grew up on.
“He’s beaten me every time on hard courts. It’s definitely going to be an extremely tough challenge,” said the 21-year-old Canadian, who came through a tricky four-setter against David Goffin in the previous round.
“Obviously he’s kind of like David: very solid, very stable from the back. It’s going to be a similar match for me. I have to play my game but remain steady as possible.”
With Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer absent, and Novak Djokovic disqualified, there are no men’s major champions left in the draw at Flushing Meadows and Shapovalov welcomed the fact a new name will be on a Grand Slam trophy.
“It’s just amazing for the sport to have a new Grand Slam champion, it has been getting pretty boring with these three guys winning every tournament,” he said.
Fifth seed Alexander Zverev, another of the top contenders, takes on Borna Coric of Croatia in another quarter-final.
On the women’s side, American Jennifer Brady will play Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan while 2018 champion Naomi Osaka meets local favourite Shelby Rogers.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
