With expectations comes stress. The end result was a rollercoaster 2022 season for Denis Shapovalov. After struggling by a lot of the spring and summer time months, the 23-year-old Canadian made certain to complete the ATP calendar on a excessive and provides himself a welcomed dose of confidence heading into the Davis Cup Finals later this month in Malaga, Spain.
After posting a powerful victory on clay over Rafael Nadal, the best to ever play on the crimson dust, to succeed in the quarter-finals on the Rome Masters in Could, Shapovalov went right into a little bit of a tailspin. He endured a string of uncharacteristic first-round losses and received only one match on grass, his favorite floor. He additionally misplaced a tricky opening-round match to Alex de Minaur on house soil on the Nationwide Financial institution Open offered by Rogers in Montreal, a match the place he has loved a number of success early on in his profession.
Shapovalov obtained again on monitor on the U.S. Open in September. Though he performed three shut matches and two towards lesser-ranked gamers, it was evident that he was getting his groove again and his trademark shot-making was on full show. Within the third spherical, he pushed Andrey Rublev to a fifth-set tiebreak which he misplaced however may have simply as simply received if he had performed the massive factors just a bit higher.
Discovering Kind in Seoul
Shapovalov carried his U.S. Open kind into the ATP 250 occasion in Seoul, Korea a couple of weeks later and reached his first ultimate of the season. He didn’t drop a set en path to the championship match the place he was crushed by Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan.
Subsequent, on the ATP 500 match in Tokyo, he superior to the semifinals as soon as once more with out shedding a set earlier than falling to the eventual champion, American Taylor Fritz in a tricky three-setter.
These sturdy outcomes set the desk for his finest efficiency of the 2022 marketing campaign in Vienna final week. It’s no secret that Shapovalov excels on indoor arduous courts, and he confirmed why as he navigated a difficult draw to seek out himself within the second largest ultimate of his profession. To get there, he beat Cincinnati champion Borna Coric, Daniel Evans, who’s all the time a tricky out, and he avenged his Tokyo loss to Fritz. Within the ultimate, he gave Danill Medvedev all he may deal with in a extremely entertaining match. His run in Vienna propelled him again inside the highest 20 on the ATP rating at no. 16.
This late-season surge will give Shapovalov one thing to construct on as he prepares to make his much-anticipated return to the Canadian Davis Cup staff after which begins his all-important offseason coaching block forward of the Australian Open swing as he appears to take his sport to a complete new degree in 2023.
The put up Shapovalov’s Fall Resurgence appeared first on Tennis Canada.
.jpg)
