Game, set, love for Venus
‘‘Fortunately, now it’s died down a bit and I’m able to go places again.
‘‘But it’s been really interesting and a lot different going from just being a regular high school student, to having your face on magazines and being talked about, it’s been pretty overwhelming to be honest.’’
To play against giants of the game like del Potro, Nadal and JoWilfried Tsonga, who he beat at the US Open, is a huge challenge for someone of Shapovalov’s age and inexperience, especially with the spotlight on him.
Shapovalov, though, said he had to think about the ball coming to him on the court, rather than the person who’s just hit it.
‘‘Definitely at the beginning I was a bit overwhelmed, seeing del Potro of Rafa on the other side of the net,’’ he said.
‘‘But once I started playing in the matches and stopped focusing on who was on the other side of the net, I started trying to just beat my opponent and that’s what really helped me out in those matches.
‘‘I stopped paying attention to who I was playing and just tried to beat another guy.’’
Like most Canadians, Shapovalov is mad on ice hockey, with the Toronto Maple Leafs his favourite team.
‘‘They’re doing really well,’’ he says of their current season in the NHL.
‘‘Hopefully they can make the playoffs and if they do they’re real contenders.
‘‘They’ve got a lot of young guys, they played extremely well last year against Washington and there were a lot of close games, so I think they can do some damage in the playoffs.’’
The men’s ASB Classic begins on January 8 and is preceded by the women’s tournament. On the court, 2017 was a massive year for Michael Venus, but it was just as momentous off it.
The 30-year-old proposed to his girlfriend Sally Trafford on the roof of the O2 Arena in London last month, while he was playing at the prestigious ATP Masters Finals.
Proposing with the sights of London below them and above the venue where he reached the semifinals with Ryan Harrison, was the perfect location.
It took a bit of organising for Venus to get onto the roof of one of London’s most iconic landmarks to pop the question, but he said it was worth the effort.
‘‘Sally and I have been together for two-and-a-half years now and we’ve been travelling together for the last few months,’’ Venus said.
‘‘Spending every day with someone for an extended amount of time, it really shows how well you get on and the more time we spent together, the better we got on.
‘‘So it was a natural progression, we were there in London, it had been a great week and I had the ring, so I thought why not?
‘‘We had a trek up to the top of the O2 for a private little tour and the guy had a small bottle of Champagne in his backpack, hoping that Sally was going to say yes.
‘‘The sunset was just happening at that time too, so it worked out great and I guess the best part is that she did say yes.’’
Clearly the on-court highlight of 2017 was winning the French Open. It earned him $NZ455,000 and he amassed $NZ866,300 in prizemoney over the year, to become one of New Zealand’s top earners in sport.
But the world No 15 says he hasn’t gone out and bought something extravagant with that money. Instead he’s using it to invest in becoming a better player.
‘‘It does look like a lot [of money], but in saying that, I pay all my own expenses and things like that,’’ he said.
‘‘I did have a successful year and that’s great, next year I’m going to have a coach that travels with me a bit more, I’m putting money back into some of those other things, so I can keep improving and have more of the results I had this year.
‘‘To expect to win a grand slam every year is pretty tough.
‘‘As long as I’m improving each day and trying to play good tennis, hopefully the results will take care of themselves and I’ll be in that position again some time.’’
A big change for Venus next year will be splitting with Harrison as his partner. The American is still focused on being a singles player and only played so much doubles with Venus this year when it became a possibility they could reach the ATP Finals.
So next year Venus will play with world No 25 Raven Klaasen from South Africa, with their first tournament together being January’s ASB Classic.
Harrison will also be at the Classic and it could have been an occasion where they could play one last event together to celebrate their Roland Garros success in front of New Zealand tennis fans, however, that won’t be the case.
‘‘When we teamed up, we only planned on playing together until the French Open, but we had that success there,’’ Venus said.
‘‘So we thought we’d have a crack for London and finish the year together, which was great.
‘‘Going forward, Ryan wants to play more singles and not be committed to doubles that much. With my doubles, I need to have someone who’s committed and willing to work together full-time to keep improving. So this is a natural progression for both of our careers, to not to play together.
The opportunity presented itself to play with Raven and I’m excited for what the future hold with him.’’
Venus will also get to play singles at the Classic, getting a wildcard for the main draw. He only played five singles matches in 2017, winning just one of them.
However, he did come extremely close to beating world No 28 Feliciano Lopez at this year’s Classic and he still backs himself in this form of the game.
‘‘I still love playing singles and getting out there as much as I can.
‘‘I played it at the Davis Cup and did well there.’’