LONDON (Reuters) – Unseeded Russian Roman Safiullin reached his maiden Grand Slam quarter-final when he secured a shock 3-6 6-3 6-1 6-3 win over Denis Shapovalov at Wimbledon on Sunday.
Safiullin looked out for the count after Shapovalov made a strong start to the fourth-round tie but he weathered the storm and his steady approach paid dividends as his opponent self-destructed.
Canadian 26th seed Shapovalov raced through the first set but Safiullin hit back to break in the sixth game of the second set courtesy of a double fault, an advantage he would not relinquish.
After the match was levelled at 1-1, Shapovalov committed two more double faults in a dismal start to the third set as Safiullin broke and then held to love for a 2-0 lead.
Minutes later, Safiullin had a 4-1 double-break after yet another double fault.
The situation went from bad to worse for Shapovalov in the fourth set when he appeared to aggravate an injury to his left leg, which left him hobbling around in pain. He was quickly put out of his misery by the Russian, who broke and then closed out the victory on serve.
Safiullin becomes just the 12th man to reach the quarter-finals on his Wimbledon main-draw debut and next faces either Italian eighth seed Jannik Sinner or Daniel Galan of Colombia.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Clare Fallon)
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