Denis Shapovalov's decision to retire from his Basel quarterfinal match versus Joao Fonseca wasn't appreciated much by the crowd as they started booing the Canadian moments after his decision was announced by the chair umpire.
Shapovalov, who was seeded at No. 9 at the Swiss ATP 500 tournament, made a fine start after breaking Fonseca twice to win the opening set with a 6-3 scoreline. In the second set, the Canadian tennis player recovered from an early break down, but still lost the set after dropping his serve in the eighth game and seeing the Brazilian close it out on his serve in the following game.
After losing the second set, Shapovalov also got broken in the first game of the third set. In the fifth game, the Brazilian collected his second break of the decider to open a comfortable 4-1 lead. Down by two breaks, the ninth-seeded Canadian walked up to the chair umpire and said he was retiring due to a right knee injury.
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The Basel crowd boos Shapovalov
On Friday, the Paris Masters also released the draw for this year's tournament edition. Funnily enough, Shapovalov drew Fonseca in the first round.
At the time of writing this article, the Canadian is still in the Paris draw. Unless he withdraws, he will meet the Brazilian for the second time in a couple of days.
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Meanwhile, prior to coming to Basel, Shapovalov competed at the Stockholm Open last week, where he reached the last-four stage before losing to eventual champion Casper Ruud.
