At the Miami Open, all eyes of Canadian fans were riveted on Bianca Andreescu after her title acquired at Indian Wells a few days earlier. However, after defeated Angelique Kerber in a California's final rematch in the third round, the Ontarian was forced to retire down 1-6, 0-2 in her next match against Estonian Anett Kontaveit. Eugenie Bouchard and Milos Raonic didn't do better by bowing respectively in the first round of the qualifications and the fourth round. Fortunately, Félix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov fulfilled the expectations by reaching both the final four.
The two compatriots did not have a restful journey to get so far. Let's start with the young Quebecker.
Forced to go through qualifying, since his points at the Rio Open were after the unveiling of the entry list, Auger-Aliassime managed to eliminate the Italians Luca Vanni and Paolo Lorenzi to get his ticket for the main draw. Once in the 96-player roster, the Montrealer needed three sets in his first two matches to defeat Casper Ruud and No. 29 seed, Hungarian Marton Fucsovics. FAA then eliminated Poland's Hubert Hurkacz and the 17th seed, Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili, with identical scores of 7-6, 6-4 to advance to the quarter-finals. Félix continued on his way to eliminate the 11th seed, Croatian Borna Coric, by the score of 7-6(3), 6-2 to reach the semifinals.
With only four players left for the title, Auger-Aliassime had the privilege of playing against local favorite and defending champion, USA's John Isner. It is well known that Isner represents one of the best servers on the ATP Tour and it's very difficult to break his service. Despite this colossal task, Auger-Aliassime was able to break the American twice to have the opportunity to serve for the first round at *5-4 and the second one at *5-3.
Unfortunately, he wasn't able to chase away the nervousness and he was broken back at every opportunity, allowing Isner to come back on equal service. The American eventually managed to win in subsequent tiebreakers and defeated Montreal's teen 7-6(3), 7-6(4) and have the chance to defend his title in the final.
Isner will face, in the final match, the winner of the evening match between Denis Shapovalov and Switzerland's Roger Federer.
Enjoying the status of 20th seed, Shapovalov didn't have to go through qualifying or play in a first-round match, but his path wasn't easy. In the second round, in his first match, Shapo had to dismiss the lucky loser Daniel Evans and he needed three innings to do it. Subsequently, he showed the way out to qualifier Andrey Rublev, who eliminated the 9th seed Marin Cilic in the previous round, in two sets of 6-3, 7-6(5) to face the world's 10th and 8th seed, the Greek Stefanos Tsisipas. At the end of a two hours and 14 minutes battle, Shapovalov got the last word in the decisive tiebreak.
Subsequently, in the quarter-finals, Shapo crossed the line with fellow Next Gen, USA's Frances Tiafoe, who he eliminated 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-2 after a duel of 2 hours and 15 minutes. Tonight, in the semi-finals, the Canadian, who will be celebrating his 20th birthday in less than 3 weeks, has tried all he could against one of the best players of the Open era, but Federer was just too strong and the Swiss won by the score of 6-2, 6-4 to join John Isner in the final.
Still, Shapovalov will crack the top 20 for the first time in his career next Monday, while Felix will jump more than 20 positions to be close to the 30th position in the world's rankings.
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