By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday October 22, 2019
When he broke out and defeated Rafael Nadal as an 18-year-old at the Rogers Cup in Montreal in 2017, Denis Shapovalov became an overnight sensation and was immediately expected to follow up on that success and play a vital role in taking the ATP’s next gen to the next level. A few weeks later when he reached the round of 16 at the US Open to become the youngest player to make the second week in New York in 28 years, the expectations ticked a touch higher—there would be no turning back now.
But success in tennis, particularly for young overachievers in an era of longevity and GOATs outdoing other GOATs, rarely comes in a straight line.
Case in point: Shapovalov, a raw, show-stopping athlete that needed seasoning on the ATP Tour before he could make good on many of the lofty expectations ascribed to him.
At the time of his round of 16 encounter with Pablo Carreno Busta in New York City in 2017, shapovalov had 18 ATP-level matches to his name, none of which had come on clay. He would need seasoning, time to travel the tour and learn the ins and outs of packing and unpacking his suitcase in a different city each week, and he would need to do it with a target on his back and a new ranking inside the Top 50.
It takes time for everybody, and for some longer than others.
Two-plus years later we know what that journey looked like for Shapovalov. It was arduous, exciting and revelatory. There were spots of inspired brilliance mixed in with patches of agonizing futility.
Most important: he would slowly but surely get acclimated to the grind that is the tennis tour, playing 63 matches in 2018 and winning 35. But the 0-5 record against the Top 10 and the 0-3 record in semi-finals that season left pundits wondering. What was taking Shapovalov so long? Why couldn’t this supremely athletic kid produce the type of magic that we saw at the Rogers Cup in 2017 every week?
Duh.
It’s a process, and instead of being impatient with Shapovalov we should have been keenly aware of the fact that he was making his way and gradually improving, even during the difficult times.
It wasn’t always perfect tennis that Shapovalov played, but he was learning the ropes, making subtle adjustments as he experience the many difficult matchups against a variety of elite players, all of whom had already banked much more experience than Shapovalov on tour. Experiencing the highs and the lows of life on the tour and, one step at a time, putting those experiences to good use, Shapovalov made his Top 20 debut and reached four more semifinals in 2019.
But Shapovalov would lose all four of those semifinal encounters, and end up 0-7 lifetime at that stage of ATP events, while his younger compatriot Felix Auger-Aliassime was surpassing him in the rankings and claiming his spot in three ATP finals.
Was the sky falling? Surely not.
Not to worry, because time was on Shapovalov’s side, just as it still is on Auger-Aliassime’s side. To have nearly 150 ATP-level matches under your belt midway through your 20th year is a luxury, and while many failed to see the forest for the trees when it came to Shapovalov’s progress over the last few years, the fact of the matter was that he was always improving, always looking inside of himself to critically analyze his game, and always displaying the mental toughness that it took to pick himself up and trudge on.
The cold, harsh reality of life on the ATP Tour is that you are losing every week whether you play well or not.
Well, pretty much every week.
It all changed last week in Stockholm as Shapovalov took that next big step in a promising career. It may have seemed like too long of a wait for some but for Denis and his camp it was a redemptive run to the title that saw the Canadian not only break through and reach his first ATP final but also defeat cagey Filip Krajinovic with a breathtaking performance to claim his maiden title.
For Shapovalov, all the hard knocks, frequent flier miles, tough losses and near misses had given him the greatest gift a tennis player can receive: Experience. It counts for so much in this sport, and when Shapovalov took the court for the Stockholm final against Krajinovic he played like a player that was ready to break free from the ties that bind. He had pushed up against a wall so many times and come up short, but each time that happened he failed he came away a stronger player and a hungrier player.
The saying that life is not about what happens it’s about how you react to what happens applies perfectly here. Shapovalov never wavered in the face of his tribulations. He may have come up short and disappointed himself by not being able to find his best tennis when it mattered most at times, but in the end what’s important is that he believed in the process.
There are no straight roads to the top in tennis, and it can get pretty ugly for a young player who has attracted the eyes and expectations of the masses. For years, all of Shapovalov’s trials and tribulations have played out under the spotlight. He’s always handled everything thrown at him like a gentleman, with humility and grace, and those traits have also helped guide him through over the last few years.
Maybe he’ll take off now, buoyed by the confidence that he’ll take from winning his first ATP title, but likely there’ll be a few more bumps along the way. The good news for Shapovalov is that the rough times will be even easier to handle now that he knows that the reward on the other side isn’t a mirage—it’s real and within his grasp.