On Sunday night in south London, Denis Shapovalov was dining with Andy Murray and Serena Williams. At one level, he was a star-struck 17-year-old from Thornhill, Ont., by way of Tel Aviv, a fan looking to get in a photo with the greats (hard to do when cellphones are prohibited). At another level, he was taking his rightful place as the latest member of tennis’s most elite club, those who have won championships at Wimbledon.
Within a couple of days, he was on the court with a bunch of teenagers and younger kids at the tennis school his mother runs in Vaughan. “They were looking at me like I’m Roger Federer,” he said.
Yesterday, Tennis Canada announced that Shapovalov, who won the boys title at Wimbledon this weekend, will be playing as a wild card in an ATP event in Washington next weekend and in Toronto the week after that. He’ll be a wild card at the Rogers Cup but something more than that: a hometown draw playing in front of, among others, those kids from his mother’s tennis school.
Shapovalov could be forgiven if his head was spinning like a kick serve given the circumstances, the on-court drama in his first Grand Slam singles final, the glamorous celebration, the flight back to Toronto, the reunion with his parents and, yes, the first conference call of what figures to be many across his career. Yet Shapovalov sounded like a well-grounded, clear-eyed and determined kid, mature beyond his years.
The International Tennis Federation’s second-ranked junior boys player (and the ATP’s No. 372), Shapovalov said that he went to Wimbledon with nothing but a championship as his goal. “I love grass,” he said. “It’s good for me and complements my game with the short rallies. Last year I had a tough draw and I beat the No. 5 in the world in the first round. I wanted to win it this year. I was upset that I lost in the semi in Paris [at the French Open boys’ tournament], so I wanted to bounce back.”
If it seems like a loss in the semifinals of a junior boys’ Grand Slam tournament shouldn’t sting so bad, consider: Shapovalov has won every other junior singles match he has played this year. Also: He had beaten the top-seed in the French Open, Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, in the quarters. And further: In that semifinal in Paris he took the opening set from Geoffrey Blancaneaux of France, who came back and went on to win the title.
Shapovalov admitted that he was nervous taking his place on Court 1 at Wimbledon for the final against Australia’s Alex De Minaur. “I had never played on such a big court before,” he said. “[After losing the first set] I tried to reset my mind. I tried to start the second set very strong and keep the pressure on.”
The pressure turned out to be unrelenting—Shapovalov rushed the net, where he won 22 of 24 points, hitting 25 winners to De Minaur’s eight. He roared back to win the match 4–6, 6–1, 6–3. It was his second straight come-from-behind win, having beaten Tsitsipas in the semis 4–6, 7–6, 6–2.
Though it’s his first Grand Slam in singles, last fall Shapovalov teamed with Montreal’s Félix Auger-Aliassime to win the boys doubles at the U.S. Open. At Wimbledon last week they made it to the final, only to lose in three sets to Kenneth Raisma of Estonia and Tsitsipas.
Shapovalov didn’t want to speculate about where he’d like to see his game in two or three years’ time, at least not in detail. He said simply that he’d like to land a regular place on the ATP tour down the line. He tried to keep his season in perspective, saying that he’d like to play in Challenger-level events but also noting that they represent a big jump. “They’ve been tough for me,” he said. “I only made one semifinal, so to win one would be incredible.”
For now, Shapovalov is focusing on what lies immediately ahead at the ATP events—and not the bright lights of the tour events so much as working his routine around them. “It’s exciting for me to be with big players, but I don’t know the people there, so it’s going to be tough to find a hitting partner,” he said.
Shapovalov said that he had hit with tour pros before, including Richard Gasquet, Grigor Dimitrov and, his favourite player from his even younger days, Roger Federer. “Federer was the one I looked up to… that I wanted to play like,” Shapovalov said.
Of course, whether it’s in Washington or Toronto or at another ATP event down the line, Shapovalov might go looking for a hitting partner but be mistaken for a young fan looking for a selfie or an autograph.