Canadian tennis in good hands with two youngsters
Denis Shapovalov captured the attention of Canadian sports fans this summer with a series of stunning performances.
The 18-year-old tennis player from Richmond Hill, Ont., upset word No. 1 Rafael Nadal en route to the semifinals of the Rogers Cup. He then qualified for the U.S. Open and charged into the Final 16 before losing to Pablo Carreno Busta.
And last weekend, he used his punishing forehand and whiplike backhand to win two singles matches as Canada’s Davis Cup team defeated India to retain its berth in the World Group for 2018.
Shapovalov’s heroics have boosted him to No. 51 in the ATP rankings. Not bad for a player who started the year at No. 250.
And not bad for a player who made a near tragic mistake in a Davis Cup tie against Britain earlier this year in Ottawa. Shapovalov angrily hit a ball that struck chair umpire Arnaud Gabas in the eye. Shapovalov was defaulted and Canada lost the tie.
The wins over India had a redemptive quality for Shapovalov and also reinforced Canada’s reputation as a tennis nation despite the absence of its top player, No. 11 Milos Raonic, who has missed Canada’s last five Davis Cup ties.
Canada can’t count on Raonic, while doubles specialist Daniel Nestor is 45, but the future of Canadian men’s tennis is still bright because Shapovalov isn’t the only phenom in the pipeline.
While Shapovalov has been grabbing the headlines, 17-year-old Montrealer Félix Auger-Aliassime has been quietly climbing the ATP rankings as well and he’s expected to be part of the Canadian team that will travel to meet fourthseeded Croatia in February.
Auger-Aliassime has reached a career-high ranking of 161 after three successful weeks in Europe and, to put that in perspective, Shapovalov was No. 247 at this time last year.
Not that either player is making comparisons. While they are rivals on the court, they are close friends. When Shapovalov visits Montreal to train, he stays with Auger-Aliassime. During his Rogers Cup run, Shapovalov took time off to help Auger-Aliassime celebrate his 17th birthday.
Auger-Aliassime had a wild-card berth in the Rogers Cup, but was unable to play because of a wrist injury that also deprived him of a chance to earn points in Challenger events in Winnipeg, Gatineau and Granby. He reached the final round of U.S. Open qualifying, then headed to Europe.
“After missing the entire summer, I wanted to play as much as possible,” Auger-Aliassime said last week from Bosnia.
The European events were on red clay, which isn’t the preferred surface for a 6-foot-4 player with a big game. Yet Auger-Aliassime won his second career Challenger in Seville and reached the quarterfinals in Como, Italy, and in Banja Luka, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Both players should move up further in the rankings by year’s end. Shapovalov has no ranking points to defend until January, while Auger-Aliassime has only 22 points to defend.
There will be no points on the line for Shapovalov when he plays in the Laver Cup in Prague. This is an exhibition event with Europe taking on a World team in a Ryder Cup format. Shapovalov was added to the World team as John McEnroe’s captain’s choice.
Shapovalov will have to qualify for next week’s Japan Open and the Masters 1000 event in Shanghai, but has a direct entry into an ATP 250 event in Antwerp, Belgium.
Auger-Aliassime will return to his comfort zone with three consecutive $100,000 Challengers on hard courts in California. Because entries are based on a player’s ranking six weeks before an event, Auger-Aliassime will have to qualify for next week’s event in Tiburon, but he’ll be seeded the following week in Stockton.