Pablo Carreno Busta will play his second career US Open Semi-Final on Friday after beating Denis Shapovalov in 5 grueling sets 3-6, 7-6, 7-6, 0-6, and 6-3 in a match that lasted 4 hours and 5 minutes long.
How it all unfolded
Carreno Busta came out the faster of the two getting three early breakpoints in the first game of the match. He ended up breaking Shapovalov to love to take an early 1-0 lead. The Canadian responded immediately breaking the Spaniard serve in the next game and we asked if both players would have issues early on holding serve.
The Richmond Hill, Ontario native managed to hold serve and it stayed on serve until 4-3 when Shapovalov had another breakpoint. The 12th seed broke serve once again to lead 5-3 and would serve out the first set taking it 6-3. He was doing a good job at moving the 20th seed from one side of the court to the other and attacking the net every chance he got.
Into the second set and after holding serve in the first game the Gijon, Spain native had more chances to break but the Nassau, Bahamas resident saved four break points before ultimately being broken and the Spaniard took an early 2-0 lead. The Canadian responded by breaking back in the next game to go back on serve and again we saw a game of back and forth and it seemed both players were eager to break and pushing hard on each other service games.
At 2-1, Carreno Busta broke once again to lead 3-1 but Shapovalov would respond breaking him back once more to make it 3-2 and normal service would resume. The second set would be decided by a tiebreaker and one mistake cost the Canadian at 3-2 and the Barcelona resident went up 4-2.
He would hold that break to win the breaker 7-5 and take the second set 7-6 to tie the match at one set apiece.
The 29-year-old would have more break chances in the third set and managed to break to take a 3-2 lead. The 21-year-old would respond at 4-3 when he was able to break Carreno Busta to go back on serve at 4-4. Once again the set would need to be decided with a tiebreaker that would be tightly contested and at 5-4 the Spaniard took the break he needed to win the breaker and the third set 7-6.
The fourth set was completely one-sided as the Canadian would come out firing on all cylinders breaking Carreno Busta on his first service game. He would end up getting another break and would take the set 6-0.
Into a fifth and deciding set and before the set began, Carreno Busta took a medical timeout to have a trainer work on his back. The set would stay on serve until 3-2 when the Spaniard had two break points and would get the break as the Canadian would double fault to give him a 4-2 lead.
He would hold and serve out the match at 5-3 and took the decider 6-3. Carreno Busta will now face Alexander Zverev in the semifinals on Friday.