After starting 2023 with a promising quarterfinal in Adelaide against Novak Djokovic, Denis Shapovalov has since continued the vein of form that summarised his previous year on the tour.
The Canadian has posted a 2-5 Win/Loss record since the Australian Open. Much of the showings in the early hard court swing have been hugely disappointing, with convincing defeats to the likes of Mmoh, Humbert, and Wu. With the clay court season now upon us after the conclusion of the Miami Open, Shapovalov’s performance levels need to improve or a possible exit from the top 30 is almost guaranteed. The slow clay is most notably the weakest surface of his game, with much of his game reliant on power groundstrokes to overwhelm opponents. This will only increase the importance of the next 2 months of competition.
The serve of Shapovalov has come under ever scrutiny in recent months with the double fault count ever increasing. A total of 20 double faults were recorded in just 2 matches at Miami Open. This is an issue that has been under the spotlight for the past 2 years on tour and evidently does not look like being resolved any time soon. This is no secret and has been previously highlighted at the start of the year in articles such as: What to Expect from Denis Shapovalov at the 2023 Australian Open.
The game of tennis itself has a nickname ‘The game of consistency’, however, Shapovalov represents the polar opposite of this. It’s a rarity these days to be able to predict what performance levels you will get, with inconsistencies in his all-round game contributing to his lack of mental capability on court. Unforced error counts are sky-high, and he almost seems to beat himself without opponents having to do much other than get the ball back in play.
The most recent defeat at the Miami Open in straight sets against Taylor Fritz drew some interesting comments post-match comments that back up a lot of the belief about the Canadian at the moment. Fritz said in his on-court interview “I couldn’t really find that attacking formula because he was hitting the ball so hard and he was hitting his second serve so big”.
It seems to be a discussion every few months about why Shapovalov isn’t living up to his early career tag as the future of Canadian Tennis. With the emergence of Felix Auger-Aliassime as the new Canadian number 1, Shapovalov may look back on his career with slight regret if he cannot challenge for titles his abilities crave.
