The 22-year-old, who dropped just eight points on serve in eight service games, registered a comfortable 6-4, 6-0 win over the World No. 73 Slovak in just 52 minutes.
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Top seed Denis Shapovalov was at his ruthless best in serve on Wednesday, as the Canadian cruised to a commanding first-round victory over Alex Molcan at the Qatar ExonnMobil Open. The 22-year-old, who dropped just eight points on serve in eight service games, registered a comfortable 6-4, 6-0 win over the World No. 73 Slovak in just 52 minutes. The left-handed player, who had a first-round bye, was also perfect six-for-six on net approaches. It was a much-needed result for the promising young star after suffering a shock straight sets defeat to Czech player Jiri Lehecka in Rotterdam.
The latest victory helps Shapovalov improve his record to 8-3 on the season. He began the year by leading Canada to victory at ATP Cup and also entered the Australian Open quarter-finals, where he pushed eventual champion Rafael Nadal to five sets before losing the hard-fought battle. Next up is a quarterfinal clash against Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech, who registered a 6-7, 6-1, 6-4 win over seventh-seeded Kazah Alexander Bublik, who has now suffered two first-round defeats following his first tour-level title in Montpellier.
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In earlier matches, Karen Khachanov survived a hard-fought first set before easing to victory in the second against World No. 51 Mackenzie McDonald in the first round of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha. The Russian overcome some of the errors he made during the match and found a way at key moments to prevail 7-6, 6-3 in one hour, 25 minutes. The latest win moves Khachanov’s ATP Head2Head series lead over McDonald to 3-0.
Khachanov will hope to continue his strong start to 2022 after reaching the final at the Adelaide International 1 before pushing eventual champion Rafael Nadal to four sets in the third round of the Australian Open last month.
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“Overall I feel it was a great match,” said the Russian in his post-match interview. “A great performance, I think, from both sides. “I felt I played very good especially in important moments, like in the tie-break in the first set and in the second set when I had opportunities on his serve. I felt confident after that and kept the advantage until the end of the match.”
In other matches, World No. 28 Daniel Evans also produced a positive outing during his first-round match in Doha. He got past Egor Gerasimov 6-4, 6-4 in one hour, 31 minutes. Elsewhere, Botic van de Zandschulp survived a difficult second-set in a tie-break to secure the win 6-2, 7-6 over Italian qualifier Thomas Fabbiano.
