Underachiever? Far from it
Don’t be fooled by rankings — Shapovalov showed resilence in impressive Day 3 win
Sometimes fans and observers forget that the other guy, or gal, is also desperately trying to win. It just gets lost in the conversation.
Three young Canadian tennis players — Leylah Fernandez, Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime — have been encountering this unforgiving reality created by expectations and previous performances this week at the Australian Open.
All three Canadians were seeded players heading into the week. For Fernandez, it was her first time having a seed number attached to her name at a major. For Auger-Aliassime, it was the first time being seeded inside the top 10. For Shapovalov, viewed two years ago as the next great player by some astute tennis observers, it was another chance to mount an assault on his first Grand Slam singles title.
All three thus began the early stages of the tournament facing similar predicaments. Win, and it’s expected. Lose, and look out, maybe this player is just a flash-in-the-pan. Win, but have to go the distance to do so, and you’ve underachieved.
Fernandez went down right away in two sets to an Australian wild card. Social media critics were quick to speculate the defeat surely meant that after her electric performance at the U.S. Open last fall, this setback was a sign Fernandez was doomed to be a one-hit wonder. Or was distracted by her new Lululemon sponsorship deal.
Auger-Aliassime, seeded No. 9, made it through his first round against unseeded Finnish player Emil Ruusuvuori, but had to dig deep, winning in five sets. AugerAliassime was portrayed as having struggled despite having fought back to deliver the win.
Then there was the 22-year-old Shapovalov. In his second-round match, the 14th-seeded Canadian faced Kwon Soon-woo of South Korea, a 24-year-old without the reputation of Shapovalov. He went into the match ranked No. 54 in the world with just one career title last year at a minor event in Kazakhstan. Dig a little deeper, however, and you would have also noted he knocked off veterans Andreas Seppi and Kevin Anderson in the early going at Roland Garros last year and beat Milos Raonic in 2020 when Raonic was ranked No. 3 in the world.
So while the popular perception might have been that the match was little more than a stepping stone for Shapovalov, it was actually a dangerous matchup against a very worthy opponent early in a major tournament when upsets most often happen.
Kwon, in the tennis major closest to his homeland, played like it was the biggest match of his career. After splitting the first two sets with Shapovalov, the gritty Korean stared down two set points in the third set tiebreak and went on to win it, capturing a two sets to one lead.
Kwon was clearly surprising Shapovalov by that point in the match, particularly with the depth and power of his groundstrokes. Shapovalov, blessed with more weaponry, was firing more aces and winners, but Kwon was making fewer mistakes. The commentators on the match made it clear they believed Shapovalov was delivering a subpar performance.
That was really looking at it, understandably perhaps, solely through a Shapovalov-centric lens. Kwon was playing his butt off, and staying right with the higher-seeded Canadian. The open question was how the higher-seeded player would respond. With determination? Or with frustration, knowing the perception was likely that he wasn’t living up to expectations?
“I was definitely pissed off,” said Shapovalov afterwards. “I felt like I was doing everything the right way, but it just wasn’t going my way. I just tried to keep at it.”
In his back pocket, Shapovalov knew he had won three other Grand Slam matches after trailing two sets to one. Kwon didn’t have those kinds of notches in his belt, and had to be uncertain whether he could hang in there as the match approached the four-hour mark in 27-degree conditions.
Leading 6-5 in the fourth set, Shapovalov broke Kwon to even the match, first with a terrific volley at his shoe tops for a winner, then by coaxing an unforced forehand error from his opponent.
The Canadian southpaw then showed his superior pedigree and conditioning, powering through the fifth and deciding set. When it mattered most, he looked calm, controlled and fitter than his opponent, finishing strong.
“I just got really quiet in the fifth,” said the normally demonstrative Shapovalov after his 7-6, 6-7, 6-7, 7-5, 6-2 triumph in a gruelling four hours and 25 minutes. “Focusing on every point, trying to maximize every shot.”
Shapovalov ended up with 81 winners against 77 unforced errors, with 29 aces to go with 10 double faults. Those numbers illustrated the unevenness of his performance. The stats, however, didn’t show the new “Rafa mentality” Shapovalov has been trying to exhibit this season under new coach Jamie Delgado. That means no whining and woe-is-me moaning on court. No negative body language. Accept the last point, towel off and move on to the next point, an attitude that has made Rafael Nadal one of the best ever.
So while many observers might have been disappointed to see Shapovalov in a life-and-death struggle with an unseeded opponent, that’s only the case if you imagined beforehand that he was going to win easily. Kwon played very well, and Shapovalov was erratic with his groundstrokes and serve. At the same time, however, any player that wins a Grand Slam has to demonstrate strong conditioning, experience on key points and the ability to take some tough body punches and still prevail. Shapovalov showed all of those against Kwon, suggesting his win was more noteworthy than it seemed.
Recognizing that just means you have to look at it as a contest between two players, not just one.