Doubles a pleasure for Canadian teens
Auger-Aliassime and Shapovalov entertain in one-sided loss Felix Auger-Aliassime, left, and Denis Shapovalov fell 6-3, 6-2 to Novak Djokovic and Kevin Anderson.
When the golf cart puttered around — tennis cart, I guess — Denis Shapovalov jumped off, slung his racquet bag over his shoulder and headed for the door leading to the players’ private retreat. Except a dogsbody tapped his elbow, pointed toward The Wall. Standing in for a mixed zone. Reporters assuming the semi-circular position. “Do we have to do it?” Yup, you do. Even sweaty, mere few minutes removed from a 6-3, 6-2 thumping back on the grandstand court — relocated from centre court following a threehour rain delay that brought all tennis to a halt at the Rogers Cup, matches stacked up and overlapping on the schedule. An opening-round doubles match thumping laid on Shapovalov and best bro Felix Auger-Aliassime by Novak Djokovic and Kevin Anderson Monday evening.
That would be the current Wimbledon champion, as of three weeks ago. And the other Wimbledon men’s finalist, as of three weeks ago.
Little wonder there was a stampede to the grandstand by tennis fans, keen to witness this oddball encounter between a brace of Canadians — oncharging Canadian teenagers — and an elite veteran duo maybe slumming along, having a bit of doubles fun before the more meaningful competition begins.
I could find no evidence that the Serb and the South African have ever before partnered on a tennis court. Last week, when Djokovic announced via Twitter that they would be yoked in Toronto, he urged fans to help him come up with a nickname for the tandem. Among the suggestions Djokovic himself tossed out: Djokerson, Djokevic, Kevak, Andole and Djokernole. Not sure if that’s been settled. But here’s a handy handle for their way-young opponents: Down & Out.
Oh settle down. No offence intended.
We’re talking about the world No. 10 and world No. 6 singles players, Djokovic with the wind beneath his wings after enduring a personal tennis crucible, plagued by injury and tumbling out of the No. 1 ranking after holding it for 223 weeks. At Wimbledon last month, the 31-yearold seemed his former self, collecting a13th Grand Slam title, and with ease over Anderson.
So this outcome between audacious upstarts and smooth operators was entirely to be expected but hugely entertaining nonetheless, with lots of rapid-fire, boom-boom volleying at the net and some wicked groundstrokes into the wheelhouse.
They’ll come a time, should this particular quartet ever be reconstituted, when the outcome will be different.
But golly, it was fun to watch, doubtless to play as well, in front of an obviously partisan audience just willing the teens to a victorious point, game, set.
Rewarded, all around, when the Canuckleheads — Shapovalov with his damply stringing blond locks and baseball cap, Auger-Aliassime with his cool high-top fade, adding a couple of inches to his beanpole sixfoot-three frame – actually broke No-Ke to start the match and then went up 2-0. Except Auger-Aliassime, not yet 18, couldn’t thereafter hold serve; in fact didn’t hold serve throughout the encounter, his second serve eaten alive.
“I struggled a little bit with my percentage at the start of the first set,” the Montrealer allowed. “I mean, I’m playing against the greatest returner in the game. So obviously he’s going to put some returns in.
“I think maybe we weren’t efficient at the net to close out the points. But that’s it.”
Kind of a thrill, though, playing tennis against the likes of Djokovic. While, over in centre court, Milos Raonic was setting aside David Goffin, the 10th seed and oldest entrant in this tournament, 6-3, 6-4.
The teens insisted — after Shapovalov directed a bit of Q & A choreography, pushing his partner forward to answer the French questions — they hadn’t been overawed or knocking at the knees when they looked across the net.
“We didn’t feel intimidated at all,” said Shapovalov. “We started off better than they did. We just let it dip a little bit. But our game was right there.
“It’s a good prep for out (singles) matches.”’
More to be savoured, actually, the mere fact of playing togeth- er, these two fine young men who have long been the tightest of pals, Shapovalov slightly older at 19 and slightly more advanced in his development, making his bones especially at this event a year ago, setting aside Rafael Nadal and Juan Martin del Potro en route the semifinal in Montreal. Meanwhile, Auger-Aliassime has been cutting a swath on the Challenger circuit, just a tier below Masters 1000, recently picking up his third title on that circuit, now ranked 12th in the ATP NextGen race for players 21 and younger.
“Yeah, definitely, any time we get a chance to play with each other it’s a lot of fun,” said Shapovalov, clearly the more seasoned dealing with media. “Like I said to him before the match, let’s just have fun out there, just enjoy ourselves and we’ll see how the match goes.”
Pause. “I don’t know.” Pause. “I thought I had fun.” Which was obviously a nudge-nudge to Felix, to pick up the refrain.
“It was fun! It was fun! The crowd was there, also special to play at home. Hopefully next time we’ll get the win but it was a lot of fun to play with Denis.”
OK, we believe you. But also evident was that the teens took the match very seriously and were annoyed with themselves over shots not made or shots missed, for all the fist-taps and mutual back-patting.
This one they’ll set aside quickly enough, each with a singles match on tap for Tuesday, both feeling rather pleased with themselves, with their tennis of late.
Felix: “I’ve been playing some good tennis in the last couple of months. Getting a lot of wins under my belt. So I’m feeling confident coming into (Tuesday) in singles.”
Denis: “I’ve been playing really good tennis the past couple of weeks. I had a really good run last week (in Cincinnati), good match against (Daniil) Medvedev, played really good against Kei (Nishikori). So I’m confident going into this tournament. Of course, I feel like the crowd is going to help me out here.”
A rarity, though, watching them on an elite court together, and likely not to be repeated any time soon, not at this level and certainly not at a major.
As Shapovalov explained: “At this point it’s tough to get in with our rankings combined at (those) events. But as soon as we’re both pretty high up, I would love to play with Felix.”
Then, turning baby-blues upon his once-and-future partner, adding almost coyly: “If he wants to play with me.”