prairiegirl
Hall of Fame
Yes, this is becoming a bit of a worry now for him.
The Shape Of Things To Come: Denis Shapovalov!
- Thread starter stringertom
- Start date
Pmasterfunk
Hall of Fame
Watching Shapo serve for the match:
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prairiegirl
Hall of Fame
I wasn't going to say much on this, but here goes. Comments on his character or mental health are disrespectful in my opinion. However, people will say what they want to say. After all, it's the Internet. I don't see him as too high strung, nor do I see him as a choker. I have said for a long time and I have proven to be right that he will slowly ascend the ranks. He has. I said he needed a new coach, and he got an excellent one. I said he would benefit from a sports psychologist and I was right. In long matches at Slams Denis 5 W and 4 L. Could he have won today? Yes. Should he have? Probably. But, when you've been playing for almost 5 hours and you get a call that denies you two match points, please don't suggest that has anything to do with being high strung if it doesn't pan out. I'll keep saying this Federer, Nadal and Djokovic have all lost matches after having match point. Lest we forget that Federer had 3 on his racket at Wimbledon. And, this is one of if not the all time great tennis player. Denis made far too many errors, but a lot of that was his desire to not get into baseline bashing with his opponent. RCB could stay out there all day. He's basically a wall. That's all he does is keep it in play. He has no weapons, so Denis kept having to generate the pace. That is not easy for five hours. So, before we all dump on this young man who's already 10 in the world, let's try and practice a little kindness here.
prairiegirl
Hall of Fame
They weren't supposed to play until tomorrow. At least that is what I thought. But, that is horrible to do that to an athlete, well, to anyone.
The Green Mile
Bionic Poster
The point was at 30-15, Shapo serving, two points away from the match. Shapo stopped the point mid rally as he thought Baena's shot was just long. Ramos came down and overruled the shot as in. Now, somebody last night said that Hawkeye showed it as in, but I watched the point again after the match and saw no Hawkeye replay being shown on the screen. Where I was sitting it looked slightly long on my TV, but you can't really say for sure. It wasn't too much of an argument from Shapo's side, he got on with it rather quickly, but made a couple of mistakes IIRC to get broken back.
mental midget
Hall of Fame
feel like it’s worth pointing out clay is is worst surface and probably always will be, and this clay is even slower than most. still coulda/shoulda won this one probably but honestly i’ve been impressed with his newfound (relative) consistency off the ground and net play/shot selection. he’s staying in the mix and competitive against true clay grinders. if he keeps improving he’ll be in very good shape for ao/uso/wimby next year. still young and guys with games like his typically take more time to develop.
Slowtwitcher
Legend
Carlos Ramos is a horrible umpire.
Pmasterfunk
Hall of Fame
Kinda salty to post that after losing a match. I mean, I'd be salty, too, and he has a point, but it makes him look kinda whiny. He could have had a buddy post this for him and retweeted and I wouldn't have said anything.
...
Now I'm waiting for Kyrgios to reply
Musterrific
Hall of Fame
He's justified making that post as the bad call changed the course of the match at a critical point. Huge difference between 30-30 and double matchpoint up. There absolutely should be hawkeye on clay and it's outrageous that it hasn't been implemented yet.
Big_Dangerous
Talk Tennis Guru
BeatlesFan
Bionic Poster
Well, nobody is forcing Denis to play doubles at a slam, he's going to have to shelve that to preserve his stamina for singles as his results improve. But I loved his trashing of the balls and the "bubble," it's good to see him slamming RG for all that. What's good is that Denis' net play has improved significantly since the lockdown, his game is evolving nicely. Youzhny has been fabulous for him so far.
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InvisibleSoul
Hall of Fame
Sorry, but I think your opinion on this is absurd. Yeah, it's absolutely salty because he should be upset and annoyed that mistake very possibly cost him the match. It does not come off as whiny when the point he's trying to make is 100% justified.
Pmasterfunk
Hall of Fame
Joseph_K
Hall of Fame
Three of the top four seeds at next week's tournament in Saint Petersburg are Russian: Daniil Medvedev (no. 1), Andrey Rublev (no. 3) and Karen Khachanov (no. 4). The no. 2 seed, Shapo, is Canadian, but his mother is a native of Ukraine and his father was born in Russia. Shapo's first-round opponent in the singles event will be the American Sam Querrey. The Canadian hasn't entered the doubles.
BeatlesFan
Bionic Poster
Wise move, he really needs to put all his eggs in one basket and ditch the doubles. He's top ten and top 10 players eschew doubles for valid reasons. Save all his mental and physical energy on singles, especially at the slam level.
-NN-
G.O.A.T.
LOL.
What pathetic shizzle this is. He might as well post it himself or not at all.
Musterrific
Hall of Fame
Absolutely. Now that his consistency has gone up and he's entered the big leagues, it's time to stop with the doubles silliness. It's just a pointless distraction for a player of his ability.
BeatlesFan
Bionic Poster
After the Rome debacle with his doubles scheduling, that should be the last straw.
Sparlingo
Hall of Fame
Doubles may have tired him out at the US Open for his singles matches but would have been a nice consolation prize to have gone after having lost his 2nd round singles match had he had a chance to rest. At a slam it's not too onerous to play doubles on off days as you don't play singles on consecutive days normally. Most Shapo observers say that doubles has helped him in singles but perhaps it's time to give it up for a while and earn some big wins.
Is there some kind of linesperson union or something keeping them in? I could not understand why for the life of me the US Open used it on most courts except the biggest two. And this was just ridiculous. Was Nadal's ump out there? Mourier I believe?
Sparlingo
Hall of Fame
Sparlingo
Hall of Fame
Another strong match for Shapo against Ivashka 6-1, 6-4. Ivashka saw five break points in the first game of the match and none in the remainder. The score would suggest a no crowd dull match but Shapo's shot-making made it still interesting. Wawrinka next. Path to final is Wawrinka, Rublev, Opelka/Coric/Raonic. Medvedev out. Good chance here.
Down_the_line
Legend
Really hoping Shapovalov grabs this title! His game is so pleasing to watch.
Hotpockets
Rookie
Has been pretty impressive so far in St. Petersburg and surprisingly consistent off both wings.
prairiegirl
Hall of Fame
So, Wawrinka is next. Hope he can play well tomorrow. It will be a tough match.
stringertom
Bionic Poster
Immediate attention required! Rubylev is a 2nd serve returnbot this week (53% points won) and Denis will be the third consecutive lefty in his draw.
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Marius_Hancu
Talk Tennis Guru
In the St P final, he was constantly berated/sabotaged by a local garbage-s**t thrower,
I am told by a Canadian originating from that city.
I am told by a Canadian originating from that city.
Marius_Hancu
Talk Tennis Guru
He plays Koeln 2.
stringertom
Bionic Poster
The final there featured Rublev vs Coric. Was Shapo attending the match and still getting shade from the locals???
Opendaroof
Rookie
Dennis is not Tennis!
romeo8880
G.O.A.T.
Watch the phucking match my god. 10 double faults and just got broken to love to lose
Red Rick
Bionic Poster
Pmasterfunk
Hall of Fame
I know those feels
stringertom
Bionic Poster
I warned of overconfidence before this match in the Canada thread. Rodionov at home (an hour drive from Vienna) and indoors on HC can produce a decent enough level to pressure the ill prepared. Obviously Shapo was overconfident and ill prepared.
stringertom
Bionic Poster
With the fall surge of the unmentionable and finals points from Bercy’19 guaranteed I’m wondering if he gets a medical evaluation for a phantom injury and a ticket straight to The Bahamas.
tennisjedi
Hall of Fame
Time for Shapo to take time off from tennis and write a few freestyles. 
Pmasterfunk
Hall of Fame
In tournaments with crowds making noise, it never bothered me, but I gotta say when it's quiet in the room it's a bit much.
prairiegirl
Hall of Fame
Don't know what happened to Denis in the past 2 weeks. Prior to that he played beautiful tennis. (except the FO?) The issue with DS is, and always has been an ability to stay at that high level for a long period of time. I know he's working with a psychologist, as he's been very open about that. He certainly works very hard at his craft, and he is making progress, but more slowly than I had imagined. Either this is his level and that's what it will always be, or he's just taking more time to actually ascend to a sustainable level. Either way, I enjoy watching him (most of the time), but clearly the past 2 weeks have been tough for him, and something seems to be wrong especially with his serve. Maybe there is a shoulder issue, and maybe it's something else. Either way, he definitely needs to attend to this if he wants to sustain that #12 ranking (which is very good I think), and reach the top 10. There is a ton of competition now and if he wants a stellar career, he will have to fight for it. Wishing him the best of luck.
prairiegirl
Hall of Fame
Easy for us as fans to say this but we don't know what's going on in his life. It could be many things but the only way we'll know is how things unfold when he returns next year. Let's just not be mean.
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