NEW ORDER ON THE COURT
Denis Shapovalov and a group of rising young stars see a chance to grab some major glory at the U.S. Open.
Tennis tourmeisters have been trying to have it both ways — forehanding and backhanding the state of the game.
One moment they’re venerating their Goldie Oldies, the big four of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray. That lot has won 35 of the last 40 Grand Slams. Their cumulative age is 127, though it’s pushing it to characterize the Serb and the Scotsman as long in the tooth at 30. Except injury wear and tear has scotched them both from the U.S Open.
Maybe widen the tennis monuments cast to the big five-ish by including Stan Wawrinka, who has squeezed out a hat trick of major titles. Marin Cilic and Juan Martin del Potro have one apiece.
Next moment, with a worried eye on the looming future — how tennis can sell itself to an audience, especially outside the Slams — the sport’s beadles have been making an endless big fuss about the Next Gen, purportedly biting at the heels of the Lost Generation, those caught, career-wise, between the legends and the young studs.
Such is the promotional vigour around the unvintage male players that the tall foreheads have dreamed up a Next Gen ATP Finals, an inaugural tournament to be staged in Milan come November featuring the top seven 21s-and-under.
Canada’s rocketing teenager sensation Denis Shapovalov ranks sixth on that list, just behind Andrey Rublev, the gawky 19-year-old Russian.
Atop the bracket stands Germany’s Alexander Zverev, widely perceived as the putative heir to Federer — whom he beat in the Rogers Cup final a fortnight ago, though the Fed Express clearly ran off the rails with a lower back problem that left him serving spam and barely capable of moving his feet.
And what did Zverev — riding a wave of five tour titles this season, seeded fourth — do at Flushing Meadows? He crashed out in the second round to another 20-year-old, the Croatian Borna Coric, come a cropper early again at a Slam just when he looked to be on the cusp of a grand breakthrough statement.
“I just played a very, very bad match,” Zverev said of the four-set loss. “That’s just the way it is. I’ve been dealing with expectations from a very young age, so for me this is just another step. I know that I could have done some big things here, something that I haven’t done before, but I won’t. It’s as simple as that.”
Not so long ago, the tennis universe gave similar princeling treatment to the indisputably lusciously talented Australian, Nick Kyrgios, now 22. At least that’s what it says on his birth certificate. In maturity years he’s about 12.
Kyrgios and a clutch of other ill-mannered young Turks — most notably his compatriot pal Bernard Tomic, fined $15,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct following his opening round loss at Wimbledon in July (for telling a post-match press conference he’d faked an injury and was “bored” with tennis) — had been quite eagerly embraced by the sport’s ruling stiff necks.
At that point, only a couple of years ago, it was believed maybe this — the group of nasty punks — was what tennis needed to liven things up a bit.
Not so much, it turns out, although the crudeness might have been more tolerable had Kyrgios et al actually lived up to their tennis elite billing.
Kyrgios, seeded 17th here, was dumped out of Queens in a typically obscene fashion last week, losing to countryman John Millman, ranked No. 235 in the world. Albeit troubled by a shoulder woe — which hadn’t bothered him a week earlier when he made it to the final of the Cincinnati Open (beating Nadal en route) before falling to Grigor Dimitrov, a fresh entrant into the world top 10. “I’m not dedicated to the game at all,” the chronically edgy and yippy Kyrgios told reporters afterwards.
As for the seventh seed Dimitrov, he was taken off the board at Flushing Meadows by the aforementioned Rublev.
Only Austria’s Dominic Thiem, from among that low-20s cohort, has managed to keep his tennis wits about him at this Open. He dispatched Adrian Mannarino on Saturday to book a spot in the round of 16, where he’ll meet del Potro, the 2009 U.S. Open champion, who chased him from Flushing Meadows last year.
Yes, it’s sport and anything can happen. Heck, neither Nadal nor Federer has looked particularly impressive in this last Slam of the season, though Rafa rolled past Leonardo Mayer after a first-set wake-up call.
But there’s a cautionary tale there too: As in every form of entertainment, they love you when you’re the new thing and a darling, rather like Shapovalov at this wondrous moment in his chrysalis career. Like Genie Bouchard when she briefly glittered. That affection can turn on a dime, with media leading the pitchfork pack. Who knows how good Shapovalov really is or can become? The kid from Richmond Hill is only 18, the youngest male to reach the fourth round at the American Slam since Michael Chang in 1989, where he encounters the Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta on Sunday.
But some of the rash comparisons by commentators — to Rod Laver, to Andre Agassi, to Nadal — have been downright ludicrous for a teenager, admittedly bounding with skill and charisma, into only his second Slam draw.
The bottom half of the draw is tantalizingly open with the stunning early ouster of Cilic, the No. 5 seed. Overall, five of the top 11 men are missing from Flushing Meadows.
So, indeed it is a lip-smacking opportunity for the Canadian to matriculate into the quarters. Ditto for the other teen, by the way, Rublev, who has received far less attention and adoration through his matches, despite taking out an even higher seed than Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (Dimitrov at No. 7) in the second round, top half of the draw. On Saturday, the Russian saw off Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia and Herzegovina in four sets.
This was not long after Shapovalov practiced alongside Maria Sharapova, where it was hard to pick the prettier blond.
The teenagers, Shapovalov and Rublev, are keeping neck-and-neck pace.
“We’re definitely making an impact,” the Canadian said the other night, speaking about the youngest young ’uns at the Open. “There is a lot of young guys coming up and the tour has got a lot of veterans right now. It’s kind of a transition time for the ATP. For sure, every Grand Slam, it’s a chance for young guys to prove themselves. And, you know, I have been doing that. Hopefully I can keep doing that.
“Guys like Rublev or anyone else still in, why not? I think everyone is beatable.”
On the subject of Carreno Busta, Shapovalov admitted he knew almost nothing.
But tennis fans might recall that it was Carreno Busta who busted fifth-seed Milos Raonic out of the French Open earlier this year, in the round of 16, in a torturous five-set match. Remember Milos?