Canadians Denis Shapovalov and Milos Raonic advance to St. Petersburg semifinals

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Canadians Denis Shapovalov and Milos Raonic have advanced to the semifinals of the St. Petersburg Open.

The second-seeded Shapovalov, from Richmond Hill, Ont., downed No. 5 seed Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland 6-4, 7-5 in quarterfinal action on Friday at the ATP Tour 500 indoor hard-court event.

The sixth-seeded Raonic, from Thornhill, Ont., defeated fourth-seeded Russian Karen Khachanov 6-1, 7-6 (1).

Shapovalov will face No. 3 seed Andrey Rublev in the semifinals on Saturday. The Russian crushed Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie 6-2, 6-1 in the quarterfinals. Shapovalov has a 2-1 edge on Rublev in the lifetime series.

“I think Andrey is one of the best players on the planet right now,” Shapovalov said. “He was playing very well at the last couple of tournaments. I suppose tomorrow’s match will be very tough.

“Sometimes our game style looks the same, we both play aggressively and we like to hit winners, so it’s going to be tough but interesting.”

Raonic, who won the event in 2015, will face No. 7 seed Borna Coric of Croatia in the semifinals after Coric defeated American Reilly Opelka 7-6 (3), 6-3.

Raonic won his only other meeting with Coric, defeating the Croat in the round of 16 at the 2016 Delray Beach outdoor hardcourt event in Florida.

Shapovalov was strong on first serve, winning 84 per cent of points when he got it in, well ahead of Wawrinka’s 72 per-cent clip.

The Canadian is now 2-1 lifetime against the Swiss veteran.

Raonic fired 15 aces past Khachanov and only faced one break point, which he saved. Raonic broke Khachanov twice in the first set and was 2-of-5 overall on break point opportunities.

Raonic won 79 per cent of service points, compared to just 58 per cent for Khachanov.

It was the first meeting on the ATP Tour between Raonic and Khachanov.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2020.

The Canadian Press