"That felt pretty great for the first match" says Denis Shapovalov after win in Abu Dhabi

Denis Shapovalov returned to the courts in Abu Dhabi and the Canadian was able to dismantle Fritz 6-3 6-0.

It was a very impressive victory that left Shapovalov very happy after the match as the Canadian ended the 2021 season on a bad note. A defeat in the Stockholm final to Tommy Paul was not the way he wanted the year to end but ultimately it did. Now in his first match back he was able to put forward a very good performance against Fritz.

He noted as much after the match saying in the interview that he does not think he can play much better than he did. Obviously, he was selling himself short as his opponent Fritz did not play his best tennis and committed many cheap errors. The 2nd set was practically given away by Fritz but either way, Shapovalov was still content.

After the match he said:

"That felt pretty great for the first match. I haven't played a match since Stockholm [in November], so it's been a while and it was great to get through it. Taylor's obviously a really great player and I've had a lot of battles with him, so to beat him today was great for me. I felt good out there and it was a good level for me."

Shapovalov will take on Andrey Rublev tomorrow and that promises to be a very good match between two players with a lot of talent.