By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday January 23, 2022
It has been a very short time that Denis Shapovalov has been working with coach Jamie Delgado, the former coach of Andy Murray for more than five years, but clearly the relationship is paying dividends.
It was early December that we learned that Murray had parted ways with his longtime coach, and that he had joined forces with Shapovalov’s team.
On Sunday at Melbourne, Shapovalov talked a bit about how the relationship got started and why it is working for him.
“Yeah, it's been awesome,” the Canadian said. “The way it came about was at the end of last year me and Misha, we mutually split, we both decided it just wasn't working out. Was looking for a coach, and Jamie was one of the guys that me and my team had thought about. We heard that he had split with Andy. So, you know, we just gave him a call and asked if he'd be interested to join the team and try out and see how it would work.”
Shapovalov has won seven of his eight matches in 2022, and just earned his first Top-5 win since 2017, and his first ever at a Slam – clear sign that the pairing could be built to last.
“Obviously it's been, you know, really good so far,” Shapovalov said. “It's been just a couple of weeks. Obviously it's really new. But we've definitely clicked in terms of personalities and in terms of, you know, working on the court. I think we both have kind of the same vision for my game.
“I feel like he's a super understanding person. Obviously he's got so much experience and, you know, he's been through so much with Andy. So he's definitely got a lot of experience under his belt. That's something that I really thought would be great to add to my team.”