Denis Shapovalov loses to Heyon Chung in Next Gen ATP Finals opener
Wednesday 8 November 2017 16:50, UK
Denis Shapovalov suffered a surprise defeat to Hyeon Chung on the opening day's play of the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan.
The world No 51 reached the US Open fourth round and was expected to impress in the eight-man field, which features the world's top seven 21-and-under singles players, plus an Italian wild card, but lost in four sets to his South Korean opponent.
Chung recovered from dropping the opening set against the youngest player in the field to record a 1-4 4-3 (7-5) 4-3 (7-4) 4-1 victory in their Group A meeting on Tuesday.
The Canadian fourth seed made a strong start to the match playing aggressive tennis to break his opponent's opening service game before claiming the first set.
Chung responded to dropping the opening set by producing the more consistent tennis from both wings and despite Shapovalov showcasing his impressive shotmaking ability was unable to break down the world No 54, especially during the crucial second and third-set tie-breaks.
Meanwhile, Russia's Daniil Medvedev, the tournament's seventh seed, enjoyed a comeback victory over compatriot Karen Khachanov winning 2-4 4-3 (7-6) 4-3 (7-2) 4-2 to produce another upset.
Khachanov started the stronger of the two controlling the baseline exchanges but the encounter swung in favour of Medvedev after he claimed successive sets on tiebreaks.
Medvedev, 21, has enjoyed an up and down campaign, which included reaching a maiden final in Chennai but thanks to some strong backhand groundstrokes became the first winner of the tournament.
Borna Coric recovered from a slow start against American Jared Donaldson, who served for the opening set, to record a convincing straight sets victory in one hour and 17 minutes.
The 20-year-old Croatian stole the first set on a tiebreak before he ran away a dominant 4-3 (7-2) 4-1 4-3 (7-5) winner over the world No 55 to make the perfect start to the round-robin stage.
Top seed Andrey Rublev was given a scare by Italian wildcard Gianluigi Quinzi before closing out a hard-earned 1-4 4-0 4-3 (7-3) 0-4 4-3 (7-3) victory in the final match of Tuesday's evening session.
Live ATP Next Gen Finals
The format is the same as the season-ending ATP Finals, which is two round robin groups of four, followed by semi-finals between the top two from each group and then a final.
The Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan and season-ending extravaganza ATP Finals at London's O2 ends another memorable year which will be covered via our website www.skysports.com/tennis with live blogs, reports, and expert analysis as the season reaches its climax.
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