The 2020 tennis year of… Denis Shapovalov
Denis Shapovalov is very close to the absolute top of the world. The year 2020 will also go down in his personal balance sheet as one of the missed opportunities.
by tennisnet.com
last edit:
Dec 09, 2020, 01:40 pm
Mikhail Youzhny does Denis Shapovalov well as a coach, this diagnosis comes from the German Davis Cup captain Michael Kohlmann. But also the old warrior Youzhny will certainly see what would have been possible for his talented protégé in the past tennis year. Especially at least the semi-finals at the US Open. In the quarterfinals, Shapovalov had the momentum against Pablo Carreno Busta after a furious fourth set on his side. But then afforded a brief lack of concentration - and had to leave in frustration.
Like at the French Open, where the Canadian lost 6-8 to Roberto Carballes Baena in the fifth set in the second round, and had bad luck with referee decisions. Things didn't go much better in Rome between New York and Paris: Shapovalov lost in the semifinals to Diego Schwartzman in the tie-break of the third set.
Shapovalov has to work on his return
The 2020 season for the left-hander at the ATP Cup began with a balanced record: victories against Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev were offset by defeats against Alex de Minaur and Novak Djokovic . At the Australian Open, the end came in round one against Marton Fucsovics, the last match win before the Corona break was against Marin Cilic in Marseille.
After the French Open, Denis Shapovalov showed again briefly in St. Petersburg, but was defeated in the semifinals by the eventual champion Andrey Rublev. The end of the year in Cologne 2 (out against Gilles Simon), Vienna (defeat against Jurij Rodionov) and Sofia (bankruptcy against Radu Albot) turned out to be quite short and painful. Shapovalov completely refrained from taking part in the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Paris-Bercy.
And so the 21-year-old, who lives in the Bahamas, is number twelve in the ATP world rankings. Shapovalov will probably also use the off-season to work on his return game: while he won 82 percent of his service games, the success rate as a setback was only 22 percent. But the great Mikhail Youzhny must have noticed that too.