ANDY FEARS IT COULD ALL GO PAIRE SHAPED
Tricky Frenchman up first for Murray — if he wins fitness fight
It was a day when his coach was ticked off for wearing the wrong shirt on the practice court and, in football parlance, the draw placed him in the Group of Death.
But at least andy Murray looks like he is going to play at wimbledon, just a fortnight after he first returned to competition following hip surgery in January.
the twice champion’s number was put into the hat yesterday morning and pulled out against Benoit Paire, the temperamental Frenchman who was his last victim at sw19, in the fourth round 51 weeks ago.
‘I guess I could have played one of the top players in the world,’ said the unseeded Murray. ‘at this stage, playing Paire in the first round is tricky for me. He is a very talented guy, awkward to play against.’
Murray felt fine after a lunchtime session with coach Jamie Delgado, who was ordered to change into a plain white outfit by officials.
‘I feel all right — not much different from the last couple of days,’ said the world No 156, who had jokingly apologised for Delgado, saying ‘sorry about him’. ‘am I going to play? I think most likely yes,’ he continued. ‘I obviously don’t know every single day how things are going to be. I need to play it a little bit by ear.
‘I can’t predict how I am going to feel in two days but if I feel like I do today, I will play.’
It will be the first time since 2007 that Murray, who will not play until tuesday, is not the highest seeded British player in the men’s draw.
the man who has assumed that mantle, Kyle Edmund, faces australian qualifier alex Bolt, and could meet Novak Djokovic in the third round. there are five British men and eight women in the draw. Last year’s semi-finalist Jo Konta would be expected to beat world No 106 Natalia Vikhlyantseva. and Katie Boulter, who narrowly lost yesterday’s final of the southsea trophy event to Kirsten Flipkens, is favourite to beat Veronica Cepede Royg of Paraguay.
any other first- round wins would be a bonus. stockport’s Naomi Broady faces defending champion Garbine Muguruza while southampton’s Gabi taylor finds herself against 2014 finalist Eugenie Bouchard. Roger Federer will open the Centre Court programme on Monday against serbian Dusan Lajovic, and could find himself with a second round against today’s Eastbourne finalist Lukas Lacko of slovakia.
No 25 seed serena williams will make her much- anticipated return against Holland’s arantxa Rus, and the first seed she is due to meet will be No 5 Elina svitolina of Ukraine.
Denis shapovalov has always wanted to be a rock star. he admits as much as he larks around in the studio for a pre-Wimbledon photo shoot.
This is one ambition the 19-year- old Canadian may not technically get to achieve, but he is already coming somewhere close to it through his prowess on the court and his flowing blond locks.
shapovalov finds himself as something of a tennis pop idol, his appearances around the world attracting the kind of reaction that was once the preserve of andre agassi and Bjorn Borg.
There is clearly substance beneath the hype. This is confirmed by the cold- hearted arithmetic of the ranking computer, which shows him as the world’s highest-ranked teenager at no 26.
There are many sober judges of the game who expect, before long, that he will emerge as a Grand slam champion, quite possibly at Wimbledon. his flowing southpaw game, with an elegant single-handed backhand, was already enough last summer to cause a sensation in his home Canadian open when he beat Rafael nadal en route to the semi-finals.
The excitement around him, which included making the last four of the Madrid open in May, is hardly dampened by his distinctive beach-bum look. ‘i stand out a bit with the long hair, it’s unusual, you don’t see a lot of people with flowing hair,’ he says.
‘a lot go short, mine is more a 1980s or 90s look but when i was growing up i had long hair and then i joined the air cadets
and they made me cut it. i was doing it to rebel against discipline. My best friend has long hair and convinced me to grow it again. i’m glad i stuck with it, it’s kind of like Borg.’ shapovalov is an easy-going character, much more so than the impression he gave in the shocking incident last year when he was playing Kyle edmund in the Davis Cup match in ottawa. swatting a ball away in a moment of anger, he accidentally hit the umpire in the face, dangerously close to his eye, and was immediately defaulted.
he no longer discusses this, saying he has learnt his lesson and moved on. another memory from that day was the way he publicly fronted up 20 minutes later, apologising in a remarkably mature manner for a then 17-year-old.
like so many top tennis players, shapovalov has an eclectic background and parents originally from eastern europe who chose to make a new life away from their roots. although not Jewish, he was born in Tel aviv before moving to Toronto at nine months old.
he takes up the story: ‘My mum and dad are from the soviet Union and that was falling apart. My mum was a tennis player and her coach was from israel, so she moved there to train. My dad came with her. They had my brother and me and they decided to go to Canada.
‘i’ve never known anything other than Canada, i am Canadian, but i have Russian blood in me and it’s my first language. i have some relatives there and some in Greece, my grandfather was Greek so i have family all over europe.’
having played ice hockey, and shown an aptitude for volleyball, he was guided towards tennis by the fact his mother
became a coach. While the majority of players opt for a double-handed backhand it turns out to be no coincidence he went for a single-hander, which has become his signature. It is a stroke whose demise has long been predicted but Roger Federer’s exquisite use of it has kept it alive.
‘I had a picture on my bedroom wall of Roger lining up for a backhand. I would wake up seeing him setting up for the backhand and watch videos of him play and try to have the same kind of strokes and play the same kind of game.’
He was not marked out for immediate stardom, and was not even ranked No 1 in Canada in his age group in the years leading up to him winning the junior Wimbledon title just two years ago.
‘I only became national-age No 1 when I was about 15. When I was young my mum made me play an aggressive game and come into the net. It’s tough when you’re young, I didn’t have the strength to get the high balls. But I knew it would pay off when I got bigger.’
His grass- court career got off to an awkward start when he first set foot on the surface in 2015, to play a junior event at Roehampton. ‘I didn’t have grass-court shoes and was slipping all over the place, and thought, “this is going to be so tough,” but within days I felt so comfortable, like I grew up on it. The first time I walked through the gates at Wimbledon and we walked the grounds, it was unbelievable. So much history and class.’
There are those who believe that, once Federer and Nadal finally fade away that Shapovalov, with his aggressive all-court game, will be at the front of the queue to replace them as Wimbledon champion.
His tournament begins on Tuesday against Frenchman Jeremy Chardy and he is in line to face Andy Murray in the second round.
Another Canadian, 17-year-old Felix Auger Aliassime, is also being tipped as special. ‘We’ve got Felix and me doing damage at a young age, we are like brothers. We can become a major tennis country.’