Denis Shapovalov apologized on Friday for the comments made by his former coach Mikhail Youzhny, who said this in a recent interview on the Tennis Majors website that the Canadian tennis player “listened, but didn’t do everything in his power to be one of the best in the world.”
“It's terrible that someone can say that I don't dedicate everything to tennis when I've done that my whole life, since I was 5 years old,” complained “Shapo” on his X account.
“Not to mention that I've been injured since Wimbledon,” he added, “I'm in rehabilitation and doing everything I can every day to get back on the court.”
Terrible, how can anyone bother to say that I don't give everything to my tennis when I have dedicated my entire life to tennis since I was five years old. Not to mention the injury since Wimbledon, the rehab and what I can do every single day just to get back on the court.
— Denis Shapovalov (@denis_shapo) December 29, 2023
Youzhny, himself a former player, coached the Canadian between 2019 and 2021. Their collaboration proved fruitful: in particular, it contributed to Shapovalov reaching the Final Four at Wimbledon two years ago. He then lost to the Serbian Novak Djokovic.
“Bad decisions”
In the interview he gave to the Tennis Majors, the Russian said in particular that he did not feel able to bring “Shapo” the change he needed.
“Two or three years ago he was one of the players who could consistently be in the top 10 [il a été 10e, en septembre 2020]. But to do that he had to change a few things outside of tennis,” he said.
“First and foremost, he had to be 100% healthy and also physically better. Above all, he had to make tennis his priority. Most of the time that's the case, but in my opinion he made poor decisions which meant tennis wasn't his priority.
recovery
The 24-year-old Ontario native, now coached by Matt Daly, has not played since his fourth-round loss at Wimbledon last summer. He then said he needed a break of several months to treat a knee injury.
He returned to training in recent weeks, but this long absence saw the former Top 30 member fall to No. 109 in the ATP rankings.