Shapovalov Shines In Vogue Alongside Karlie Kloss

A season full of highlights for Denis Shapovalov just keeps getting better. 

Reaching the Coupe Rogers semi-finals, the second week of the US Open, and breaking into the Top 50 of the Emirates ATP Rankings as a teenager have made Shapovalov a household name in the tennis world. Now the 18-year-old Canadian is getting attention in the fashion world after joining supermodel Karlie Kloss on the cover of the November issue of VOGUE. 

“I was really nervous heading there. I didn’t know what to expect from Karlie, I’ve never met a model that’s so famous before,” said Shapovalov of Kloss, who has more than 7 million followers on Instagram and has featured on 32 Vogue covers internationally. “But she was so nice and really cool, so it was really fun. She really made me relax and she helped me have a great time.” 

With his trademark backwards ball cap and impressive flow of shiny blond hair, Shapovalov knows a thing or two about style, and he managed to hold his own with Kloss despite being more familiar with sets of tennis rather than sets of fashion shoots.

“It was funny, the makeup and the hairstyling… everything took her probably two hours to get ready, and then the stylist, she looks at my hair and she’s like, ‘Yeah I think that looks pretty good!’ recalled Shapovalov, with a laugh. “So they didn’t touch it up at all. Maybe it’s just natural, I don’t know!”

Despite many unbelievable on-court moments for the Canadian in a wildly successful season that even he could never have predicted, this off-court moment was perhaps even harder to believe – and not just for Shapovalov. 

“I told my parents and my best friend. They really didn’t believe me!” said Shapovalov. “But they were really excited for me.”

Shapovalov will be among the world’s best eight 21-and-under players who will compete at the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan from 7-11 November. Learn more about the event