On the hottest day of the tournament so far, with temperatures of 33 degrees, it was an extremely cold shower for Alexander Zverev.

And there was nothing, absolutely nothing, that could explain the coldness of the shower.

He, who said he had come to win the Australian Open and, in the best case, soon become number one, lost in three sobering sets 3: 6, 6: 7, 3: 6 against Denis in Melbourne on Sunday afternoon (local time). Shapovalov.

So nothing came of the promising idea of ​​​​seeing Zverev and Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals in two days.

The Spaniard will be there, after a monstrous tie-break of 28 minutes he won in the first set against the previously strong Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 7: 6, 6: 2, 6: 2. 

When Zverev and Shapovalov appeared at Margaret Court Arena, the third largest arena at Melbourne Park, Nadal was just closing in on the memorable tiebreak at Rod Laver Arena next door;

the games were scheduled more or less parallel to give the winners an equal chance in the recovery time for the next encounter.

In the balance sheet, Zverev led 4: 2 against the Canadian, who was two years his junior, but he had lost two of the last three meetings together.

It was difficult to say beforehand what could realistically be expected: Zverev's performances in Melbourne in the victories over compatriot Daniel Altmaier, John Millman (Australia) and Radu Albot (Moldova) had fallen under the category reasonably okay, but nothing more .

There was, he didn't contradict, still plenty of room for improvement.

Shapovalov, who had never progressed past the third round at the Australian Open, had endured tougher tests in the first week, including a five-set win in round two.

When asked what to expect from the game, Zverev's brother, friend, manager, sparring partner and good spirit Mischa answered a few hours earlier: Well, with Shapovalov you never know, he's known to be a grab bag.

The most important thing against him is consistency.

But in the end the game had few miracles and a lot to offer, especially on his brother's side.

He gave up a service game for the first time pretty quickly in the first set and didn't come back.

He didn't move well, looked pale and lacked energy, but you thought: This can get even better.

Once it finds its way into the game, there will be plenty of opportunities to turn things around.

He conceded another break in the first game of the second set, then smashed his racquet in three determined smashes, but more helpfully Shapovalov veered off the path with a series of double faults.

Zverev managed a rebreak to make it 2: 2, later he grabbed another serve from the Canadian to make it 5: 3 and it looked like the game could start all over again.

But there was still no hint of security in Zverev's game.

When he served to win the set, he conceded another break, and in the tie-break that started a little later he was quickly clearly behind.

Again and again he looked helpless and frustrated at his team, and it seemed as if he lacked any energy.

That's how he lost the tie-break, and from that moment on, the path he had to take just got steeper and steeper.

It's not as if Zverev had never played a game in a Grand Slam tournament after being 0: 2 sets behind - most recently he did it last year at the French Open against German colleague Oscar Otte - but it is was not to recognize, before the confidence for the necessary increase should come.

Shapovalov kept offering small help in the form of double faults, but Zverev didn't draw any strength from that.

He remained puzzlingly pale and feeble until the end, until the Canadian's second match point after two hours and 22 minutes. 

When asked what went wrong, Zverev answered in one word: "Everything".

That was probably his bad game since losing at Wimbledon last year in the Round of 16 and he now needs to find out where the reason is.

No, he hadn't slept badly, hadn't had an upset stomach and hadn't run into any wall either - there was no explanation.

The whole week on the tennis court, for whatever reason, was kind of d... gone.

With the ice-cold climax in the game against Denis Shapovalov.