Denis Shapovalov


Denis Shapovalov is a Canadian professional tennis player. Shapovalov is currently ranked in the top 20 of the ATP rankings, and was the youngest to crack the top 30 since 2005. His career-high ATP singles ranking is No. 13 in the world. He is currently the sixth-youngest player ranked within the ATP top 100, behind compatriot Félix Auger-Aliassime, Serbian Miomir Kecmanović, Australian Alexei Popyrin, Frenchman Corentin Moutet and Italian Jannik Sinner.
Shapovalov rose to prominence by reaching a Masters semifinal at the 2017 Canadian Open as an 18-year-old, beating grand slam champions Juan Martín del Potro and Rafael Nadal during his run. He has since reached another Masters semifinal at the 2018 Madrid Open, and became the top-ranked Canadian on May 21 as part of his ongoing climb in the ATP rankings. Although not known for being a doubles player, in May 2019 he partnered with Fernando Verdasco to reach the last 16 at the 2019 Italian Open. He then partnered with Rohan Bopanna to reach the finals at the 2019 MercedesCup in June 2019, bringing him to a career-high doubles ranking of 130 and moving him past Adil Shamasdin as the No. 1 ranked Canadian doubles player. An appearance in the quarterfinal at the 2019 season-ending Paris Masters, again with Bopanna, took him into the top-50 in doubles for the first time, making him the highest-ranked doubles player under the age of 25.
As a junior, Shapovalov reached a career-high ITF junior ranking of No. 2 behind a Wimbledon grand slam singles title in 2016, and a US Open grand slam doubles title with Auger-Aliassime in 2015.

Early life

Shapovalov was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, the son of Russian-Israeli citizens Tessa and Viktor Shapovalov. His mother was on the Russian national tennis team, and moved from Russia to Tel Aviv with Denis' father when the Soviet Union was collapsing. She eventually became a tennis coach there. His mother is Jewish, and his father is a Russian Eastern Orthodox Christian. Shapovalov has one sibling, his older brother Evgeniy, who was also born in Israel.
The family moved from Israel to Canada before Denis's first birthday. He then lived in Vaughan, Ontario. He started playing tennis at the Richmond Hill Country Club, where his mother got a job as a coach two weeks after arriving in Toronto from Tel Aviv. Denis began playing tennis at age 5, and quickly became obsessed with the game. When it became difficult to get Denis enough time on the Richmond Hill club's courts, his mother left her job there and eventually opened her own tennis academy in Vaughan, named TessaTennis, to help give him a home base to train and to teach the game to other juniors. She is still his coach, along with Martin Laurendeau. Shapovalov attended Stephen Lewis Secondary School in Vaughan. He is nicknamed "Shapo".
Shapovalov is fluent in Russian. He gave his first interview in Russian to Russian Eurosport commentators. He now lives in Nassau, Bahamas, but plays for Canada, and holds Canadian citizenship.

Tennis career

Juniors

When Shapovalov was 13, his training needs were too much for his mother to handle on her own. It was at this point that the family hired Adriano Fuorivia, a former manager of tennis development for Tennis Canada, to be his personal coach and travel with Shapovalov while his parents stayed home to run the academy. The relationship between Shapovalov and Adriano lasted four years, and included numerous junior and ITF futures titles, including the 2015 US Open Junior Doubles title and the 2016 Wimbledon Junior Singles title. In October 2013, Shapovalov won his first junior singles title at the ITF G5 in Burlington, Ontario. He captured his second singles title in April 2014 at the ITF G5 in Burlington. In July 2014, Shapovalov won the singles and doubles titles at the ITF G4 in San José. At the US Open in September 2015, he qualified in singles and made it to the third round for his second straight Grand Slam. In doubles, he won the title with partner Félix Auger-Aliassime. In October 2015, Shapovalov and fellow Canadians Félix Auger-Aliassime and Benjamin Sigouin captured the first Junior Davis Cup title for Canada in its history. At the French Open in May 2016, he advanced to the semifinals in singles and to the second round in doubles. At the beginning of July 2016, he captured his first G1 singles title after winning in Roehampton. A week later, Shapovalov became the third Canadian to win a junior Grand Slam singles title with a three-set victory over Alex De Minaur at the 2016 Wimbledon Championships. He also reached the doubles final with Félix Auger-Aliassime.
As a junior, he compiled a singles win/loss record of 86–32.

2015–16: Early years

In late November 2015, Shapovalov won his first professional doubles title at the ITF Futures in Pensacola. In January 2016, he reached the doubles final at the ITF Futures in Sunrise. A week later, he captured his first professional singles title with a straight-set victory over Pedro Sakamoto at the ITF Futures in Weston. In March 2016, he reached the semifinals of the Challenger Banque Nationale de Drummondville, beating his first top 100 player in Austin Krajicek before losing to Daniel Evans in three sets.
In April 2016, Shapovalov won his second and third singles titles after defeating world No. 286 Tennys Sandgren at the ITF 25K in Memphis and winning the ITF 10K in Orange Park over Miomir Kecmanović two weeks later. He also won the doubles title in Orange Park. In July 2016, Shapovalov was awarded a wildcard for the tournament in Washington, his first ATP main draw appearance. He was defeated by Lukáš Lacko in three sets. Shapovalov then was awarded a wildcard for the 2016 Rogers Cup the next week. In the first round he upset world No. 19 Nick Kyrgios, beating him in three sets to win his first tour level match. He was defeated by No. 40 Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets in the next round.

2017: Masters 1000 semifinal and top 50 debut

In February 2017, Shapovalov was selected to play for the Canada Davis Cup team in the World Group 1st round tie against Great Britain, and lost his opener to Dan Evans. In the deciding rubber against Kyle Edmund, he accidentally hit the chair umpire, Arnaud Gabas, in the eye after launching a ball aimlessly towards the crowd in anger after dropping serve in the opening stages of the third set, leading to immediate disqualification for unsportsmanlike behavior, and as a result, Great Britain won the tie 3–2.
In March in Gatineau, Shapovalov captured his fourth ITF Futures singles title after defeating Gleb Sakharov in straight sets. Two weeks later, he won his first ATP Challenger title with a victory over Ruben Bemelmans at the 75K in Drummondville, and was the youngest Canadian to win a Challenger until Félix Auger-Aliassime's victory at the Open Sopra Steria de Lyon later in the year. The next week, he was defeated by Mirza Bašić in the final of the ATP Challenger 50K in Guadalajara, stopping his winning streak at 17 matches. At the French Open in May, his first professional Grand Slam, he was defeated in the first round of qualifying by the first seed Marius Copil in three sets. In June, Shapovalov qualified for the ATP 500 at the Queen's Club Championships, his fourth ATP main draw but his first as a qualifier. In the first round, he defeated his second top 50 player, world No. 47 Kyle Edmund, before losing to world No. 14 Tomáš Berdych. At Wimbledon in July, Shapovalov was awarded a wild card for the main draw. He was defeated by Jerzy Janowicz in the opening round. At the end of the month, he won his second ATP Challenger title, defeating compatriot Peter Polansky in the final of the 75K in Gatineau.
Shapovalov experienced a significant breakthrough in August at the Rogers Cup when he defeated world No. 31 Juan Martín del Potro in the second round and world No. 2 Rafael Nadal in the next round, which was his first-ever match against a top 10 player. He went on to defeat world No. 42 Adrian Mannarino in the quarterfinals before bowing out to world No. 8 Alexander Zverev in the semifinals, thus becoming the youngest player ever to reach an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semifinal.
Despite his achievements at the Rogers Cup, Shapovalov had to qualify to enter the main draw of the US Open. In the qualifying rounds, he defeated Denis Kudla, Gastão Elias, and Jan Šátral. In the main draw, Shapovalov defeated Daniil Medvedev in the first round, then No. 8 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second. He reached the fourth round by defeating Kyle Edmund in four sets, becoming the youngest player to reach the fourth round since Michael Chang in 1989. He was defeated by world No. 19 Pablo Carreño Busta in the fourth round, after which he reached his career-high ATP ranking of 51. Shapovalov was offered a wild card to the main draw of the Shanghai Masters in October where he lost in the first round to Viktor Troicki in three sets. He also lost in the first round of the Paris Masters two weeks later to Julien Benneteau. In November, Shapovalov competed in the inaugural Next Generation ATP Finals along with seven other top singles players aged 21 and under. Seeded third, Shapovalov finished third in his Group with a record of one win and two losses in round robin play, which was not enough to qualify for the semifinals.

2018: Top 30

Shapovalov began his 2018 season at the Brisbane International, where he lost in the first round in both singles, to Kyle Edmund, and doubles, to eventual winners Henri Kontinen and John Peers. At the ASB Classic, he defeated Rogério Dutra Silva in the opening round but was knocked out in the second round to second seed Juan Martín del Potro in straight sets. At the Australian Open, Shapovalov won his first round match over Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets, but lost in the next round to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in five sets despite leading Tsonga 5–2 in the deciding set.
Shapovalov then made his debut at the Delray Beach Open where he reached the semifinals. He defeated Ivo Karlović, Jared Donaldson, and Taylor Fritz in the first three rounds, before falling to eventual champion Frances Tiafoe. The next week at the Mexican Open, Shapovalov defeated former world No. 4 Kei Nishikori in three sets in the first round but lost to world No. 6 Dominic Thiem in the second round. Shapovalov started his March campaign making his debut at Indian Wells, defeating qualifier Ričardas Berankis in the opening round. He lost however to 30th seed Pablo Cuevas in the second round. At the Miami Open, he defeated Viktor Troicki, world No. 30 Damir Džumhur, and world No. 14 Sam Querrey in the first three rounds. He was defeated by Borna Ćorić in the fourth round.
Shapovalov started off his maiden clay court season at the Monte-Carlo Masters, where he lost in straight sets to qualifier Stefanos Tsitsipas in the first round. At his second clay court tournament, the Hungarian Open, he once again lost in the first round, this time to Nikoloz Basilashvili. At the Madrid Open, he defeated Tennys Sandgren and Benoît Paire, before knocking out compatriot Milos Raonic to reach the quarterfinals. He then defeated Kyle Edmund to become the youngest semifinalist in Madrid Open history. He subsequently lost in straight sets to world No. 3 and eventual champion Alexander Zverev. Shapovalov's victories here were his first on a clay surface and propelled him to the ATP Top 30 for the first time in his career. He became the youngest top-30 player since Richard Gasquet in 2005. The following week at the Italian Open, Shapovalov beat Tomáš Berdych in three sets and Robin Haase also in three sets to set up a rematch with Rafael Nadal in the third round. With the win over Berdych, he became Canada's new number one in singles. He was defeated by Nadal in straight sets. Shapovalov continued the momentum at the French Open defeating John Millman in straight sets in the first round, but lost to Maximilian Marterer in the next round.
Shapovalov next entered the Stuttgart Open, his first tournament of the season on grass, but lost in the first round to qualifier Prajnesh Gunneswaran. The next week at the Queen's Club Championships, he lost again in the opening round this time to Gilles Müller. Despite the struggles, Shapovalov entered the Eastbourne Championships. Seeded third, he defeated Jared Donaldson in his second round matchup only to lose to Mischa Zverev in the quarterfinals. In his first ever appearance at Wimbledon, Shapovalov won his first round match by defeating Jeremy Chardy, but lost to Benoit Paire in the next round after taking the first set 6–0.
Shapovalov started the 2018 North American summer hard court swing leading up to the US Open seeded 9th at the Citi Open in Washington, DC, where he defeated Daniil Medvedev before losing to 7th seed Kei Nishikori in the quarterfinals. The following week Shapovalov returned home to Toronto and the Rogers Cup, the tournament where he experienced his 2017 ATP World Tour semifinal breakthrough. Shapovalov handily defeated Jeremy Chardy and fiery Italian Fabio Fognini in straight sets, before being knocked out of his home tournament in the Round of 16 by Robin Haase. In his first appearance at the Cincinnati Masters on August 13, Shapovalov defeated fellow NextGen ATP up and comer Frances Tiafoe and frequent opponent Kyle Edmund, before going down in the Round of 16 to fellow countryman Milos Raonic, who avenged his loss to Shapovalov during their maiden meeting at the Madrid Open in May.
In his second US Open appearance, 28th seed Shapovalov met good friend and fellow Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime in a highly anticipated first round match-up on a sweltering New York evening. The friends split the first two sets, but in a cruel twist of fate Auger-Aliassime, in his first Grand Slam main draw appearance, was forced to retire from the match in frightening circumstances in the third set. The 18-year old Auger-Aliassime took a medical timeout early in the set, feeling faint and dizzy with a racing heart rate. He played one more game before withdrawing from the match, unable to continue. The pair shared a long embrace at the net following the match, after which Shapovalov encouraged the crowd to applaud Auger-Aliassime and then joined his friend at the sidelines to comfort him. Shapovalov defeated Andreas Seppi in a five set marathon in the next round, but then fell in the Round of 32 to 5th seed Kevin Anderson in a five-set thriller that lasted close to four hours.

2019: First ATP title & Masters final, Davis Cup final

Shapovalov began his 2019 season at the Auckland Open, where seeded seventh, he was defeated by Joao Sousa in three sets. At the Australian Open, he defeated Pablo Andujar and Taro Daniel before being stopped in four sets by six-time and eventual champion Novak Djokovic in their first singles match. His next tournament saw him out in straight sets to Pierre-Hughes Herbert in the quarterfinals. He was also knocked out in the quarterfinals of the Rotterdam Open, but was able to defeat perennial Top-10 player Tomas Berdych before being defeated by former champion Stan Wawrinka. After a dismal opening loss to Mikhail Kukushkin in the Open 13, Shapovalov turned his attention to Indian Wells. He defeated former U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic before being stopped by Hubert Hurkacz in the Round of 16. His Miami Open campaign was more fruitful as he was able to defeat fellow NextGen players Stefanos Tsitsipas and Frances Tiafoe on the way to the semifinals. Although he and fellow Canadian Félix Auger-Alissime were semifinalists and had a chance to face off in the finals, both were defeated by veteran champions; Auger-Aliassime by defending champion John Isner, and Shapovalov by eventual champion Roger Federer in their first singles match. This propelled him for the first time to Top 20 in the world. On 20 October 2019, Shapovalov won his first ATP title at the Stockholm Open, defeating Filip Krajinović in straight sets. During the final event of the year, the Paris Rolex Masters, Shapovalov secured a top 20 year end finish, beating Gilles Simon, Fabio Fognini, Alexander Zverev and Gaël Monfils to reach the semis. There, due to a last minute retirement from Rafael Nadal, Denis reached his first Masters 1000 final. In the finals he lost to Novak Djokovic 6-3 6-4. He finished the season at a career high ranking of number 15.
In the 2019 Davis Cup Finals, Shapovalov and Vasek Pospisil teamed up to single-handedly take Canada to its first-ever Davis Cup final in the
119-year history of the event, defeating Russia, Australia, the United States and Italy en route to the finals.

Coaching

Shapovalov has been coached for many years by his mother, Tessa Shapovalova. In the fall of 2018, Shapovalov added Rob Steckley to his coaching team, replacing Martin Laurendeau, who could no longer travel with them due to a back injury. In April 2019, Rob Steclkey confirmed that the two have ended their association. The perception around Steckley was that he was more of a women's coach. That same month, Shapovolov reunited with his junior coach Adriano Fuorivia. Shapovalov and Fuorivia were together at the ATP Cup in January 2019 as the world No. 15. Fuorivia, 41, is a well-known figure in the Canadian tennis. Coach Fuorivia coached Canadian tennis star Denis Shapovalov to the 2016 Wimbledon boys' singles title. Mikhail Youzhny, a former world No. 8 has been added to the coaching team as Shapovalov's new "shot selection" coach as that has been an issue for Denis until this point of his career.

Significant finals

ATP Masters 1000 finals

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

ResultYearTournamentSurfaceOpponentScore
Loss2019Paris MastersHard Novak Djokovic3–6, 4–6

ATP career finals

Singles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScore
Win1–02019 Stockholm Open – Singles|Stockholm Open, Sweden250 SeriesHard Filip Krajinović6–4, 6–4
Loss1–12019 Rolex Paris Masters – Singles|Paris Masters, FranceMastersHard Novak Djokovic3–6, 4–6

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScore
Loss0–12019 MercedesCup – Doubles|Stuttgart Open, Germany250 SeriesGrass Rohan Bopanna John Peers
Bruno Soares		5–7, 3–6

Other finals

Team competitions: 1 (1 runner-up)

ATP Challenger Tour and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 7 (6 titles, 1 runner-up)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScore
Win1–0Weston F5, USAFuturesClay Pedro Sakamoto7–6, 6–3
Win2–0Memphis F12, USAFuturesHard Tennys Sandgren7–6, 7–6
Win3–0Orange Park F14, USAFuturesClay Miomir Kecmanović7–5, 2–6, 7–6
Win4–0Gatineau F1, CanadaFuturesHard Gleb Sakharov6–2, 6–4
Win5–02017 Challenger Banque Nationale de Drummondville – Singles|Drummondville, CanadaChallengerHard Ruben Bemelmans6–3, 6–2
Loss5–12017 Jalisco Open – Singles|Guadalajara, MexicoChallengerHard Mirza Bašić4–6, 4–6
Win6–12017 Challenger de Gatineau – Men's Singles|Gatineau, CanadaChallengerHard Peter Polansky6–1, 3–6, 6–3

Doubles: 3 (2 titles, 1 runner-up)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScore
Win1–0Pensacola F33, USAFuturesClay Péter Nagy Christopher Ephron
Bruno Savi		6–3, 6–2
Loss1–1Sunrise F4, USAFuturesClay Péter Nagy Isak Arvidsson
Kaichi Uchida		4–6, 4–6
Win2–1Orange Park F14, USAFuturesClay Péter Nagy Ruben Gonzales
Dennis Nevolo		6–2, 6–3

Junior Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 (1 title)

Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

Singles performance timeline

Current through the 2020 Australian Open.

Doubles performance timeline

Current through the 2019 Vienna Open.

Record against top 10 players

Shapovalov's match record against those who have been ranked in the top 10, with those who have been No. 1 in boldface
Shapovalov has a record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10.
Season201520162017201820192020Total
Wins0010326


National representation

Davis Cup (5–3)

Awards