Containing your nerves during a tense tennis match is always difficult especially if the contest has important meanings for the contenders. Rising star Denis Shapolvalov is one of the nicest upcoming stars around, and he was excited for playing the decisive rubber of the Davis Cup tie against Great Britain. The Canadian was looking for glory, but, eventually, things went (very) south for the youngster that couldn’t express his best tennis, and when he was two sets down against Edmund, he couldn’t contain his frustration after being broken again. Denis hit the umpire with a ball, and then he was defaulted. This is something that unfortunately will always remain in Denis’ career, but it could be a wake-up call for him and other players. 

So, there is a bit too much of rackets and balls throwing around at all levels. Recently an Italian player was defaulted in Melbourne (junior) for throwing a ball at a ball kid (ok, the default was a bit too much), but even top players such as Djokovic and Murray have risked many times to be defaulted because they could not contain their frustration.

Even a great player like Tim Henman has once been disqualified for hitting a ball girl in Wimbledon. See below

This is a wake-up call. MURRAY

During a recent interview, Andy reflected on Shapovalov’s episode to state

“For sure, it is a wake-up call for all players. It was shocking. I have never seen anything like that before. I am still not sure exactly how he managed to do that. You can’t always control your emotions, and that is a situation that was close to being very dangerous.

The umpire was obviously very lucky, but he is OK and Denis is lucky as well that he didn’t do any more damage than he did. It is a freak incident.”