Denis Shapovalov used to be coached by Mikhail Youzhny, and it was a pretty good partnership that ended abruptly.
Denis Shapovalov’s career is generally just one big sequence of events that don’t make sense. He emerged as a pretty talented teenager with some impressive wins like the one over Rafael Nadal, only to kind of fall behind in the pecking order.
He would have a good run here and there but, for the most part, kept struggling for the major breakthrough on the ATP Tour. The Wimbledon run in 2021 to the semi-final came under the guidance of Youzhny, and it was the last time Shapovalov looked really strong on the tennis court.
At that time, a rift appeared between them as they had different views on how Shapovalov was supposed to handle the following months. Eventually, they would separate at the end of 2021, with the Russian explaining to Tennis Majors recently how and why it all came to be.
After the Wimbledon semi-finals, we disagreed on some scheduling decisions – I thought that we should stick with the plan we agreed on… I started to feel that we lost the connection a little bit, so we ended our collaboration at the end of that year.
The split was a mutual decision, but if I have to sum up the reasons, they come down to tournament choices and practice choices. I started to feel more like a sparring partner than a coach.
The separation didn’t do anything good to Shapovalov’s career, who has struggled with a lot of injuries since then. That certainly impacted his play, but he didn’t play that well, even when he was healthy.
He finished with an okay 34-26 record the following year but had a pretty poor 2023 season with a 13-13 record. Hopefully, 2024 ends up being better for the Canadian.
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