ATP Tour

Shapovalov returns to Los Cabos final, meets Gea in title decider

Denis Shapovalov continued his perfect record at the Mifel Tennis Open by Telcel Oppo in the early hours of Saturday morning, when he battled past fifth seed Cameron Norrie 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 to return to the Los Cabos final.

The Canadian lifted the trophy on his tournament debut at the ATP 250 event last year and is once again back in the championship match after fighting past Norrie in two hours and 40 minutes.

Shapovalov produced several stunning winners off both wings throughout his clash with Norrie, but also outlasted the British lefty physically down the home straight. The 27-year-old looked the fresher of the two after brutal baseline exchanges in the humidity and sealed victory on his first match point when Norrie fired a forehand return long.

“Great serving from me today and I knew I needed it against a guy like Cam. He doesn’t give you many free points so I knew I had to try and hit my serves and hit tricky spots for him,” said Shapovalov, who improved to 1-2 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series against Norrie. “I am very happy, it was a very tough battle and I am ready to go to sleep.”

Shapovalov, who holds an 8-0 record at the ATP 250 event, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index, is into his 10th tour-level final and will be chasing his fifth title on Saturday night when he meets Arthur Gea.

Earlier, Gea continued his dream week when he defeated Coleman Wong 7-6(7), 6-3 to reach his first ATP Tour final.

The 21-year-old Frenchman, who upset World No. 20 Francisco Cerundolo in the quarter-finals for just his second Top-20 win, converted his sixth set point of a tense first set to lead before he won three straight games from 3-3 in the second set to advance after one hour and 50 minutes.

Watch Gea reach the Los Cabos final:

Gea is up 32 places to No. 95 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings and will break into the Top 100 for the first time on Monday. He is the third-youngest finalist in tournament history and the sixth Frenchman to reach a tour-level championship match this season. Arthur Fils, Quentin Halys and Luca Van Assche have lifted trophies, with Halys and Van Assche triumphing just last week in Kitzbühel and Estoril, respectively.