At this week's Delray Beach Open, Denis Shapovalov – 18 years young with a Rafael Nadal scalping already in his match history – has made more believers in his talent. He reached the semifinals after a straight-sets victory over fellow ATP NextGen player Taylor Fritz, while trying to become the seventh man of this millennium to win a tour-level title by age 18.

He's also good-naturedly suffering some unforced errors from the mouths of fans: They just can't seem to pronounce his name.

Shapovalov has handled this kind of ineptitude with aplomb during his rise over the past year, and he's done so again this week:

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Even so, if they stumble over a fairly obvious, four-syllable surname, don't let these kinds of fans anywhere near names like Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexandr Dolgopolov or oodles of others.

Back to the tennis itself: Shapovalov would fall to Frances Tiafoe in the semifinal round. Tiafoe went on to win it all, becoming the first ATP player born in 1998 to win a title.

Follow Jon on Twitter: @jonscott9.

Shapovalov’s name gets butchered by Delray fans

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