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TORONTO — When Denis Shapovalov broke his opponent’s serve for the second time in the second set on Tuesday night, the Canadian yelled and jumped in the air as the home crowd roared, and then Shapovalov brought his hand up to his ear, asking for more.

The fans delivered. As hard as Shapovalov tried, though, he could not. 

On the Sobeys Stadium centre court, the 26-year-old from nearby Richmond Hill lost a 7-6 (4), 7-5 decision to 19-year-old American Learner Tien at the National Bank Open presented by Rogers, a loss to a lower-ranked opponent that Shapovalov said was “probably completely mental” as he failed to take advantage at key moments in the match.  

“I wasn’t beaten — I lost today,” a straight-faced Shapovalov said when it was over. “I had the match. I had the first set, I had the second set, and just a little bit of nerves, a little bit of, yeah, just didn’t go my way.” 

Shapovalov added: “It sucks, of course.”

And so Shapovalov, who’s ranked 29th in the world, is one and done at his home tournament, ousted by an American ranked 61st. Shapovalov hasn’t won a match at his national open in six years. He didn’t know that, though: “I don’t keep track,” he said. 

It looked really good for the crowd favourite to get back in the winner’s circle at the NBO at times on Tuesday. Shapovalov earned an early break in the opening set, pumped a fist and then fired three aces in his next service game. But any momentum he gained was short-lived. 

In the first-set tiebreaker, Learner was up 4-2 when the crowd broke into cheers of “Let’s go Shapo!” (clap, clap, clap, clap, clap). The Canadian couldn’t claw his way back to win the set, though he threw himself to the court to make a couple of great returns on the final point before eventually sending the ball wide. 

“I felt fine after the first set because I felt like the set should have been mine, I just kind of messed up serving for the set,” Shapovalov said. 

He was fired up from the start Tuesday: Pumping his fists and yelling “yeah!” and “come on!” when he won big points. But the lefty said he never truly felt “comfortable” on the court, pointing out the wide-open stadium felt “pretty swirly,” as he put it. “I felt like my feet weren’t adjusting great to the ball today.”  

Shapovalov came into this tournament riding a four-game win streak following a tournament win in Los Cabos, Mexico, at an ATP 250 event where he didn’t drop a single set en route to his second title of the season. 

The former world No. 10 and 2021 Wimbledon semifinalist has been on a long road returning from a knee injury that saw him miss half of the 2023 season. When he returned in January of 2024, Shapovalov’s world ranking had tumbled to 137^th. 

Shapovalov’s loss was part of a disappointing day for Canadians on the hard court. In the morning in Montreal, 2019 NBO champion Bianca Andreescu withdrew due to an ankle injury she sustained in her opener. Then in the early afternoon, Leylah Fernandez, fresh off the biggest title win of her career two days earlier in Washington — and still tired from the win — was upset in her afternoon match. 

Shapovalov had a great run at his national tournament back in 2017 when he upset world No. 2 Rafael Nadal and advanced to the semifinals. His last win at the NBO came in 2019, when he beat world No. 40 Pierre-Hughes Hebert, and he’s 0-5 here ever since. 

On Tuesday night, Shapovalov earned an early break in the second set, but gave up a break on his next service game, ending with a double fault — one of eight he’d register.

“I never felt like I’m being outplayed or this match is slipping away,” Shapovalov said. “It’s just a little bit unfortunate. Too many mistakes today.” 

When he made his last mistake of the night, sending a backhand wide, Shapovalov removed his white hat and walked up to the net to shake hands. Then he walked off the court and gave a small wave to the crowd. His eighth appearance at the NBO lasted just an hour and 35 minutes.

“I didn’t feel, until maybe the very end, that I was going to lose this match,” he said.