At 19 years of age, Denis Shapovalov had to cope with extremely high expectations this season. The upcoming Canadian has still to win his maiden ATP title, but he is already one of the strongest players on tour.
In 2018, Denis has reached a world no.23 career high (11th of June) and he has ended the season in the 27th position.
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Denis managed to reach the semifinal in Madrid (the youngest player ever to reach the final 4 in the tournament) and he got to the semis also in Delray Beach and Tokyo. The Canadian needs to probably to revise his scheduling for his own admission also because he got to the end of the season without any gas in the tank. In fact, Denis 5 of his last 6 matches before withdrawing from the Next Gen Finals.
I just wanted to stay in the top50…
During a recent interview, Denis commented
“For me, the goal was just to stay inside the top 50. To be able to finish the year-end at 27, it’s huge for me. It’s pretty inspiring and motivating to keep going forward so that next year hopefully I can keep growing and keep improving my ranking.”
… I improved physically and mentally
Then Shapovalov added
“Physically I’ve gotten stronger and mentally I’ve gotten better. My game, in general, has improved. I felt like last year to beat these guys, I had to play my best tennis. Now I feel like if I’m just playing good if I’m playing my solid tennis game, I’m able to probably beat them and be tight with them.
So it’s a huge confidence booster for me. But at the same time, I definitely want to keep improving and keep going forward.”
Shapovalov has just ended his vacation and he will kick off the next season in Auckland.
HAPPY!
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