Shapovalov Just Wants To Be The Best

Denis Shapovalov is just 19 years old. Sometimes that’s easy to forget given everything he has accomplished.

The Canadian made his first big splash not long after his 18th birthday, beating Juan Martin del Potro and Rafael Nadal en route to the Coupe Rogers semi-finals, becoming the youngest player to reach an ATP Tour Masters 1000 quarter-final or semi-final since the series began in 1990.

“My whole life has changed in the past five days,” Shapovalov said at the time.

The teenager went from sleeping in a room at friend Felix Auger-Aliassime’s house with a poster of Rafael Nadal on the wall to being a household name himself. After becoming the youngest player to reach the fourth round of the US Open just weeks later, Shapovalov was a budding rockstar on the ATP Tour.

Shapovalov had plenty of eyes on him throughout 2018. And he did not disappoint, winning nearly triple the number of tour-level matches (35-28) as he did last year and reaching three ATP Tour semi-finals. The highlight of the year perhaps came in May.

When the Canadian arrived at the Mutua Madrid Open, he did not own a tour-level victory on clay. Yet Shapovalov broke Nadal’s record for youngest quarter-finalist and semi-finalist at the event by advancing to the last four, doing so for the second time at a Masters 1000 tournament. Any time you break one of Nadal’s clay-court records, that’s a special achievement.

“Some people would mention that I had a really unsuccessful year, and I’m just sitting thinking, ‘I’m 27 in the world, what are you guys talking about? I was 50 last year’,” Shapovalov said. “There are always people that are saying, ‘You should be winning titles. You should be doing this and that.’ I try to tell them listen guys I’m only 19 and everyone’s going at their own speed. Everyone goes at their own pace. It never got me down. I’ve always stayed motivated, positive and so has my team.

“In 2018, I think my results were really good, actually. I didn’t have anything unbelievable. I didn’t win any titles. But overall, I really progressed,” Shapovalov said. “Finishing [the year] 27th in the world was really a big step forward for me, and I hope that next year I can just keep going forward.”

Shapovalov began 2017 at No. 250 in the ATP Rankings. This year, he started at No. 51. And heading into 2019 as the World No. 27, he has certainly shown steady improvement. So people will be watching to see just how high he can climb.

“It’s a challenge for somebody so young to come out and burst onto the scene and all of a sudden have so many expectations. It’s inevitable,” said Shapovalov’s coach, Rob Steckley. “I think people can get lost in the expectations. So I think that’s the challenging part for an athlete and the team as well, to make sure that you don’t get sucked in. I think that he’s done a great job at being able to back his [freshman] year up with some incredible results and really proving to himself that he belongs there. I think that’s a big challenge for somebody his age.”

The best players in the world are also very aware that Shapovalov is coming, and quickly. Reigning Wimbledon finalist and Nitto ATP Finals qualifier Kevin Anderson needed five grueling sets that lasted three hours and 43 minutes to sneak by the Canadian at the US Open.

“He definitely didn’t make it very easy for me out there. I think so far in his pretty young career he has played great tennis, especially in the big stadiums in front of thousands of people,” Anderson said. That bodes very well for him moving forward. He’s a really exciting player. Obviously he’s going to continue to mature and get more experience. You’re definitely going to be seeing a lot of him in the future.”

It’s easy to forget that Shapovalov is the youngest player in the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings. But what might be most impressive is that, despite being World No. 27 at 19 years old, he is nowhere near content. That’s why the left-hander spent three weeks at the IMG Academy in Florida training this off-season. Some days began as early as 6:00 am, and did not end until more than 12 hours later.

“I definitely don’t get excited for fitness. It’s not something I always look forward to, especially after four hours of court time. But that’s why you have a team to push you,” Shapovalov said.

At the end of the day, no matter how tough training gets, or the expectations Shapovalov faces, there’s a reason he is putting in all of the work.

“I just want to be the best,” Shapovalov said. “When I get tired, I just think, ‘I want to be lifting trophies next year’.”