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MELBOURNE, Australia – The list of coaches who’ve worked with Denis Shapovalov during his pro career isn’t a short one.
The latest is 40-year-old Janko Tipsarevic.
And while everyone and his brother has their opinion of what Shapovalov “needs” to do to get back to the top echelons of the game, Shapovalov maintains that he is who he is – even if he acknowledges it’s a double-edged sword.
Here’s our piece for the Canadian Press.
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Shapovalov drew a comparison – and in NO way was he comparing his career to that of Carlos Alcaraz – but in the way Alcaraz lives on that edge.
Sometimes it helps, sometimes it hurts.
“Obviously, he’s perfected at a much better level. But when he has off days, he’s more off than a guy like (Jannik) Sinner, maybe, or someone else, and he’ll miss more. And again, people comment that he needs to be more consistent or whatnot. But his game has also made him the great player that he is, and he’s been so tough to play because he is so aggressive.”
Here’s how they looked on Saturday, during a practice session with France’s Arthur Cazaux.
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I find it concerning that Shapo did not mention his serve needing work. He only mentioned try to work on little things like footwork & shot selection at the right time. A few years ago, I read that he was not concerned with all his double faults because they were just part of the game. That is true to a certain extent, but he is routinely in double digits in double faults. That’s a lot of free points to give away. The actual serve itself seems to be very good when he gets it in, he just needs to do it more often, especially on his second serve. I’m no expert, only a fan, but lot of commentators mention his toss being the problem in that he ends up chasing it too often. It’s probably not an easy thing to fix, but one would think that he would at least try. Or has he been, & hasn’t been able to yet? Tks.
Just because he didn’t mention it, doesn’t mean he’s not working on it.
It wasn’t an exhaustive list. Nor is Shapovalov particularly forthcoming about this stuff – that was actually a LOT more than he’ll usually give me. But I asked him to be … more specific after his initial answer 🙂