"I beat myself today" - Shapovalov distraught following early exit at Cincinnati

Denis Shapovalov saw his Western & Southern Open campaign come to an abrupt end of Tuesday night, as he lost in three sets to Benoit Paire in his opening round match.

The sixth seed fought back after dropping the first set to force a decider, but was unable to close the deal as Paire pulled off a 6-3 4-6 7-5 victory. Due to a ran-delay, the match began at 11pm local time, but Shapovalov conceded that neither the time nor even Paire himself were responsible for his poor play.

"No challenge (from Paire in particular), just myself,” the Canadian said after the match. “I beat myself today, that was really the match.

“I was obviously up the whole match, so...” Shapovalov said, unable to finish his sentence.

Although he led by a break on two occasions in the final set, the World No.10 could not close out the match.

"Today was pretty terrible,” admitted Shapovalov. “So, just gonna, I dunno. Just gonna review with my team and see what changes I can make, because today’s performance was pretty bad from my side.

“That’s really all I can say, I need to change my game.”