Denis Shapovalov apologized on Friday for the comments made by his former coach Mikhail Youzhny, who said in a recent interview au site Tennis Majors that the Canadian tennis player “listened, but did not do everything in his power to be one of the best in the world.”
“It’s horrible that someone can say that I don’t dedicate everything to tennis when that’s what I’ve done my whole life, since the age of 5,” lamented “Shapo” by the through his X account.
“Not to mention that I have been injured since Wimbledon,” he added, “that I am in rehabilitation and that I am doing everything I can every day to be back on the court.”
Awful how can someone can go out of their way to say i’m not giving everything for my tennis when i’ve dedicated my whole life to it from the age of 5. Not to mention being injured since Wimbledon, rehabbing and doing everything I can every single day just to get back on court.
— Denis Shapovalov (@denis_shapo) December 29, 2023
Youzhny, himself a former player, coached the Canadian between 2019 and 2021. Their collaboration proved fruitful: it notably 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 Tennis Majors, the Russian notably said that he did not feel able to bring “Shapo” the change he needed.
“Two or three years ago he was one of those players who could be in the top 10 consistently [il a été 10e, en septembre 2020]. But for that, he had to change a few things outside of tennis,” he said.
“He had to be 100% healthy, first and foremost, and also physically better. But above all, he had to make tennis his priority. It is most of the time, but in my opinion, he made bad decisions which meant that tennis was not his priority.
Recovering
The 24-year-old Ontarian, now coached by Matt Daly, has not played since his defeat in the fourth round of 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 caused the former member of the top 30 to fall to 109th on the ATP rankings.
2023-12-29 13:37:54
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