Taylor Fritz had a flying start to his campaign in Dallas! He wasted no time in clinching his first home win of the 2025 ATP Tour season. After thrashing Arthur Rinderknech in the first round, the American is now all set to face the Canadian star Denis Shapovalov in the R16 of the Dallas Open. Taylor Fritz is now looking forward to better his 2016 final run at the event. He reached the first of his 16 tour-level finals that season when the event was held in Memphis. Looking at his incredible performances in the last few months, fans can surely expect some fireworks from him in this match against Shapovalov. Can the Canadian stop the in-form American?
Taylor Fritz vs Denis Shapovalov: Preview
Taylor Fritz was quite superb last season! He won the Delray Beach Open by beating his compatriot Tommy Paul in two sets. After that, he even reached the final of the Bavarian International, but over there he was defeated by Jan-Lennard Struff (GER). His second title triumph came at the Eastbourne International. After we saw Taylor Fritz putting up a stellar performance in the two major tournaments, he reached the QF of the Wimbledon Championships and made it to the final at the 2024 US Open. However, in NY he was defeated by Jannik Sinner by 3-6,4-6,5-7. It was followed by yet another defeat to Sinner in the final of the ATP World Tour Finals. Gael Monfils recently defeated Taylor Fritz in the R3 of the 2025 AO, but Fritz’s 6-4,6-2 triumph over Rinderknech in the R32 may give a bit of confidence before this match.
Tennis – Australian Open – Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia, February 12, 2021 Taylor Fritz of the U.S. in action during his third round match against Serbia’s Novak Djokovic REUTERS/Kelly Defina
Denis Shapovalov, on the other hand, didn’t have an impressive start to his season in 2024. However, in the later stages, he did manage to put up some impressive performances. For example, Shapovalov reached the QF at the Citi Open and the Swiss Indoors before clinching his first title of the 2024 season at the Serbia Open. The 25-year-old Canadian tennis star started the season with an R16 run at the Adelaide International. However, Shapovalov looked pretty ordinary at the 2025 AO. He was defeated by Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti in the second round. However, in Dallas, he showcased a fair bit of resilience in his 6-3,6(5)-7,6-3 win over Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic in the 32.
Fritz vs Shapovalov: Head-to-Head
Taylor Fritz and Denis Shapovalov have met each other several times in their careers so far. Currently, the Canadian has a lead of 5-4 over Fritz in the H2H record. It’ll be interesting to see if Taylor Fritz can pull things on level terms with a win in the R16 of the 2025 Dallas Open.
2023 ATP Masters 1000 Miami R32: Fritz 6-4,6-4.
2023 Acapulco R16: Fritz 6-4,6-4.
2022 Vienna R16: Shapovalov 6-1,4-6,6-3.
2022 Tokyo SF: Fritz 6-3,6(5)-7,6-3.
2021 San Diego R16: Shapovalov 7-6(7),6-2.
2021 Doha QF: Fritz 5-7,6-3,7-5.
2020 US Open R32: Shapovalov 3-6,6-3,4-6,7-6(5),6-2.
2019 Davis Cup Finals Round Robin: Shapovalov 7-6(6),6-3.
2018 Delray Beach Open QF: Shapovalov 7-5,6-4.
Prediction: Fritz to win in straight sets
Looking at Taylor Fritz’s form in the last few months, it’s really tough to put someone else above him at the moment! Especially in an event that’s being held on the American soil. At a career-high of number 4 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Taylor Fritz is now the highest-ranked player to compete at this event since Andy Roddick (4) in 2007, when the tournament was held in San Jose. Talking about his form, if we take a look at the numbers, Fritz had a win-loss record of 55-23 in the 2024 season, while Shapovalov (54) had a win-loss record of just 26-24.
In the previous match, we saw Fritz losing just 6 points on the serve against Rinderknech. Taylor Fritz hit 11 aces in that match and didn’t commit even a single double fault against the Frenchman. He won 93% of his fire-serve points! So, we’re expecting Fritz to take a similar approach to seal the deal in this match against Denis Shapovalov.
If we take a glimpse at their playing styles, Taylor Fritz is an offensive baseliner. His groundstrokes are powerful and penetrating and can force errors out of his opponents. Fritz’s most powerful and consistent stroke is his forehand and he also possesses a strong backhand as well, that is flatter and lower bouncing. He possesses a dominant serve and guess how many aces he hit last season? Well, this 27-year-old American fired 725 aces in the 2024 season! It’ll be interesting to see how many he hits this season. However, talking about other aspects of his game, Taylor Fritz has a unique ability to hit sharp-angle cross-court shots on both the backhand and forehand sides. He also posses a good topspin lob.
On the other side, Denis Shapovalov is known for his bold style and high-risk shot-making on the court, with his leaping backhand considered one of his most remarkable shots. This left-handed Canadian tennis player has a good single-handed backhand. Shapovalov is often seen playing serve-and-volley, particularly on quick surfaces, in a bid to catch his opponents off-guard and quickly close points. So, Taylor Fritz needs to be a bit watchful on this. Even his serves are capable of securing a few points during his matches. We saw him hitting 20 aces in his previous match! Is this going to be a battle of aces? It seems so!
However, Shapovalov is also known to produce quite a significant amount of unforced errors during his matches. Unless he keeps things tidy right from the start of this match, it’d be difficult for him to throw a major challenge towards the American. Talking about the probable winner in this match, we feel it’d be a bit difficult for Shapovalov to beat the in-form Fritz on this surface.
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