{"id":106783,"date":"2026-06-17T07:15:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T11:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=106783"},"modified":"2026-06-16T22:02:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T02:02:56","slug":"shot-dennis-shapovalov-botic-van-de-zandschulp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/06\/17\/shot-dennis-shapovalov-botic-van-de-zandschulp\/","title":{"rendered":"Which is Shot of The Year? Dennis Shapovalov or Botic van de Zandschulp?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The ATP Queen&#8217;s Club Championships main draw kicked off on Monday. Still, it has already provided contenders for shots of the year as Canadian Dennis Shapovalov and Dutchman Botic Van de Zandschulp produced some spectacular shots on their way to securing victory in their opening matches. Amid the frenzy of the World Cup currently captivating sports fans, you likely missed it. We at LWOT are here to make sure you don&#8217;t miss out on anything interesting and have brought both moments to you. Let&#8217;s get into it, and do let us know in the comments whose shot you felt was more impressive.<\/p>\n<h2>Shot of the Year Contenders<\/h2>\n<h4>Dennis Shapovalov Steals Crucial Point<\/h4>\n<p>In what was an enthralling and captivating three-set battle against home hopeful Jack Pinnington Jones, <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/i\/status\/2066577723930169643\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the Canadian hit a diving volley<\/a> in the third-set tiebreak to steal the point and in doing so bring up match point, which he duly took to win the match. It was the kind of flamboyance we&#8217;ve come to expect from Shapovalov, and fans of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/02\/16\/can-denis-shapovalov-reclaim-his-promise\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">the mercurial 27-year-old<\/a> will certainly be hoping the grass season can bring out the best in him as it occasionally does, following what has been an underwhelming season so far.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">What. A. Finish \u203c\ufe0f<a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/denis_shapo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@denis_shapo<\/a> pulls off the spectacular &amp; weathers the storm against home hope Pinnington Jones<a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/atptour?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@atptour<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/HSBCChampionships?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#HSBCChampionships<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/p2zAfXSCSh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/p2zAfXSCSh<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Tennis TV (@TennisTV) <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TennisTV\/status\/2066577723930169643?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 15, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Botic Van de Zandschulp&#8217;s Tweener Magic<\/h4>\n<p>In what was a bit more of a straightforward victory for Botic Van de Zandschulp playing against Harry Wendelken, the Dutchman produced <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/i\/status\/2066502460206649621\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">what the match will most be remembered for<\/a>. Midway through the second set, while leading 6-4, 4-3, he produced an incredible tweener lob to win the first point, leaving his opponent flapping at air. It was a thrilling finish to a nice little rally and created the platform for the Dutchman to create two break points. Ultimately, he was unable to capitalise on any of them, as Wendelken held, making his outstanding shot nothing more than a footnote in the match. He still went on to win, though, in a tight second-set tiebreak.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NO WAY \ud83e\udd2f<\/p>\n<p>Botic van de Zandschulp with the OUTRAGEOUS tweener lob! \ud83e\udd76<a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/HSBCChampionships?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#HSBCChampionships<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ZuSip42nXI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/ZuSip42nXI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Tennis TV (@TennisTV) <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TennisTV\/status\/2066502460206649621?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 15, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo Credit: David Kirouac-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The ATP Queen&#8217;s Club Championships main draw kicked off on Monday. Still, it has already provided contenders for shots of the year as Canadian Dennis Shapovalov and Dutchman Botic Van de Zandschulp produced some spectacular shots on their way to securing victory in their opening matches. Amid the frenzy of the World Cup currently captivating [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5743,"featured_media":74128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2,9],"tags":[9553,43857,43848,16174],"class_list":["post-106783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atp","category-featured","category-news","tag-botic-van-de-zandschulp","tag-denis-shapovalos","tag-harry-wendelken","tag-jack-pinnington-jones"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5743"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106783"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106867,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106783\/revisions\/106867"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}