Denis Shapovalov is gathering a bad-boy reputation on the ATP tour after his on-court controversy at the Washington Open.
Fiery Canadian Denis Shapovalov has unfortunately made more enemies than friends in the past couple of weeks on the ATP
Shapovalov was defaulted in his match against Ben Shelton in Washington for allegedly directing foul language towards a spectator.
Having returned to Canada to compete at the Montreal Open, the 24-year-old suffered a first round exit to American opponent Brandon Nakashima.
The Canadian would’ve been hoping for a more routine week following his run-in with the ATP, but was second best on Wednesday.
Currently ranked down in 106, Shapovalov’s occasionally volatile on-court demeanor, partnered with his often high count of unforced errors, is proving a disastrous recipe of late.
What did Denis Shapovalov say went wrong in his defeat to Brandon Nakashima?
With Shapovalov back in front of a panel of journalists in his post-match press conference at the Canadian Open, he would’ve hoped to be in a more positive mood.
However, after a straight sets defeat just days after he was defaulted, Shapovalov was frank in his assessment of his performance.
He said: “I had two really loose games on my serve. One in every set. That was the big difference.
“I had chances on his serve, but he served really well today. That was the difference. He played well in the important moments and I didn’t play so good in the big moments.”
With 15 unforced errors and five double faults, the Canadian’s inconsistency is truly his biggest issue.
Nakashima is no slouch and on his day can provide stiff competition to the top players, with wins over top 10 stars like Andrey Rublev and Alex de Minaur.
Denis Shapovalov must fix his attitude if he is climb back up the ATP rankings
Shapovalov’s junior career was extremely promising with two junior grand slams.
His quick rise to as high as tenth in the ATP rankings wasn’t all that surprising when you considered his huge serve and heavy groundstrokes.
It wasn’t long however before the Canadian fired a shot in anger intended for the stands, but accidentally struck the umpire in the eye.
While this wasn’t a spectacle of deliberate violence, it is always going to be brought back up when you get yourself embroiled in another on-court spat.
A difficult run with injuries has caused his ranking to plummet and the defeats we are seeing at the moment are more down to a lack of match experience.
That said however, Shapovalov must remain patient and allow himself to make the errors in order to get himself back to where he belongs.
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