FIGHTING SPIRIT
Denis Shapovalov credits his on-court battles for his meteoric rise
TORONTO — It is fairly evident that even Denis Shapovalov cannot quite explain it.
How did the 18-year-old best known for beaning a chair umpire in the eye at the Davis Cup last winter, who lost in the first round at Wimbledon and was ranked 161st in the world, blow into the hardcourt season like a backwards-hat-wearing buzzsaw? How did the teenager from Richmond Hill, Ont., suddenly start beating Grand Slam champions — plural — win over New York City and become Canada’s Sweetheart along the way?
“Just playing good tennis at the right weeks,” Shapovalov said on Thursday morning, in front of a bank of television cameras at a Toronto luxury hotel.
The setting was fitting. The Toronto International Film Festival and all of its celebrity gazing began the same day in the same neighbourhood, so might as well have the country’s newest star mingle among the swells.
But back to his breakthrough.
Shapovalov did allow that there was one thing he could credit for his remarkable six-week run.
“The biggest thing I think I improved was mentally on the court,” he said. “Just my fighting spirit. Just staying calm and, yeah, just fighting for every point.”
This could be a case of an athlete being aware of his press clippings, as just about everyone who has fallen for Shapovalov has noted something about his toughness/tenacity/grit and/ or fortitude, but he was able to explain it a bit further. Playing in big moments, he said, allowed him to learn from them, and his coaches would help him adapt for the same situation the next time.
Trying to close out Juan Martin del Potro in Montreal, he said, “I got broken and I got a little bit nervous and I started rushing my points.”
Coach Martin Laurendeau told him after the match to slow things down, “go to the towel a little bit more,” and regroup when he was feeling the nerves.
Shapovalov said he relied on that against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second round at the U.S. Open, staying calm after the Frenchman broke his serve, before fighting back to beat the eighth seed.
“It’s just playing a lot of matches, being in these situations a lot, it’s really helping me mentally improve.”
All of that sounds perfectly sensible, but still: With his fourth-round loss in New York, Shapovalov should jump almost another 20 spots in the ATP rankings and be knocking on the top 50. That’s a jump of 110 spots in six weeks, over which time various tennis luminaries compared him to a young Rafael Nadal and a young Roger Federer. Those guys turned out OK. John McEnroe said he reminded him of himself (minus, presumably, the fits).
That kind of rise can’t entirely be hung on renewed pluck and moxie. But, whatever happened to cause Shapovalov’s wild ascension, he appears more than comfortable with it.
“My life has definitely changed in the past month,” he said, noting that he gets recognized at airports and in malls now. He sounded charmed by the little fans whose parents nervously introduce them — “Just seeing all these young kids look up to me, it’s pretty inspiring” — and he’s aware that he’s already established an identity. The cap with the strap pulled extra tight, for example. His equipment sponsor has sent him hats that fit better — “I’ve always had a pretty small head” — but he likes wearing the larger one, pulled tight. It’s kind of his thing.
“It’s become my trademark,” Shapovalov says.
And people are sometimes pronouncing his name correctly, too.
“It looks intimidating on paper, I mean there are a lot of Os and As,” he says. Shapo will do, he says. “It stands out, and it’s pretty simple.”
It’s also better than Sharapova, which he says he has been called before.
He will play in the Davis Cup next week in Edmonton, hopefully alongside Vasek Pospisil, who is dealing with a bad back. (Milos Raonic is out with a wrist injury.) The two have become close, having played together at the Davis Cup in February, and Shapovalov credits the 27-year-old from Vernon, B.C., with helping him prepare for opponents during his hardcourt run.
“He’s an unbelievable guy,” he said of Pospisil, who was often in the player’s box in New York watching his young friend play. Shapovalov also gave a nod to Felix Auger Aliassime, the 17-year-old from Montreal and fellow wonder kid.
“He was kicking my ass in practice the week after (the Rogers Cup in) Montreal,” said Shapovalov, who says he can’t wait to play in front of Canadian fans again.
That’s one last way in which Shapovalov seems unlike his predecessors in Canadian tennis stardom: He embraces the role of ambassador, saying he hopes kids pick up racquets because of him and stating bluntly that he wants to win for his country. He doesn’t sound like someone who would skip the Olympics.
And, for now, he hopes to get into the top 30 in the world next season. He smiles a little. Maybe top 20. And, one day, a Grand Slam.
“I think to do that for my country would be really inspiring,” Shapovalov says.
Do it for yourself, kid. The country will be happy to come along for the ride.
I think to do that for my country would be really inspiring. Tennis star Denis Shapovalov on his hopes to one day win a Grand Slam title.