There are few personalities in the world of tennis who speak as candidly and naturally about their past and present as Mikhail Youzhny. The Russian, recent coach of Denis Shapovalov and now new travel companion of Cristian Garín, has many things to tell… and some are details that we did not know.
When Mikhail Youzhny brought to Denis Shapovalov to the semi-finals of Wimbledon, everything made us think that the Canadian had finally found the coach capable of maximizing his potential. He gave him more stability, pushed him to be more aggressive and the results, it seems, were finally coming. However, it was all a true mirage: the Canadian went into a tailspin very soon, beginning a spiral of physical problems and inconsistency that resulted in the Russian’s dismissal and a carousel of new coaches. We knew little or nothing about that breakup, until Youzhny himself decided to speak, in great detail, in a very interesting interview with Tennis Majors in which he veiledly questioned the professionalism by Shapovalov. Of course, he also has nice words about how the team welcomed him and gave him a great opportunity.
“Working with Denis was an incredible experience for me. I was very lucky to be able to work with a great, young player, just a year after retiring. had great potential and we started very well. During the pandemic we spent three months training together in Bradenton, and when I joined the team, Denis’s mother helped me a lot, explaining things to me about his tennis and his personality so that I wouldn’t make any mistakes. The results were great.”, the Russian begins by saying, who put the Canadian in the top-10, with victories over elite players and semifinals in places as important as Wimbledon and Rome. However, the consequences of his great tournament in London… were fatal. And there the dream turns into a nightmare.
“After the Wimbledon semi-finals, we disagreed on some scheduling decisions. I thought we should stick to the plan we had agreed on at the beginning… I started to feel like we had lost connection a little, so we ended our collaboration at the end of that year. The breakup was by mutual agreement, but if I had to define the reasons, I would say that they were due to the management of the calendar and training sessions. I started to feel like a sparring partner instead of a coach.“, details the Russian. This would not be the end of the story: after a defeat against Minaur at the Canadian Masters 1000 in 2022, Shapovalov turned to his former coach again for the US Open… but the relationship was never the same.
“I remember watching that match. Denis called me to get my opinion on his game and asked me if he could go to the US Open. We trained together, he told me more about his season and the problems he was having off the court. Playing was not being easy for him. He asked me if I could be his head coach, traveling about 20 weeks a year, and it seemed like a challenge I would have liked to take on. We talked a lot in New York, after that we had a lot of calls and conversations, but I felt that nothing had changed. He felt that he couldn’t give him the change he needed: he listened, but he didn’t do 100% what he needs to do to be a top player. Two or three years ago he was one of the players who could be top-10 consistently, but for that to happen now he must change a couple of things outside of tennis. He needs to be 100% healthy, above all, and physically better. The main thing is that you place tennis as his priority. Most of the time it is but, in my opinion, he has made some bad decisions where he didn’t put tennis as his priority.”
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO FACE THE BIG THREE?
But talking about Mikhail Youzhny should not only be reduced to his role as a coach. As a player, “El Coronel” was one of the most outstanding rackets of the last decade, reaching the US Open semi-finals on two occasions and defeating some of the best rackets in the world. With a very long career, the Russian had time to face Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic…and he is very clear about which of the three was the greatest challenge, although his answer is full of nuances. “Rafa and Novak were younger than me, so at first it was a little easier for me to face them. The first matches were very close: as time went on, they improved a lot and it became more and more difficult to face them.
For me, and not only for me, but for hundreds of players, It was very difficult to face Roger. We played many times on grass and, if I’m honest, out of 17 games, perhaps only in two did I have the opportunity to beat him. It’s simple: we played the same type of tennis, but he did everything better than me: his serve was better, my sliced backhand didn’t work against him… maybe just our backhand was on the same level, but he had no advantage in nowhere. It was very difficult for me to find a way to beat him on a tactical level. If you remember Guillermo Canashe beat him twice in a row and he had opportunities because he played a type of tennis that Roger doesn’t adapt to if he has a bad day.
With Rafa and Novak it was easier to play on a mental level, because I had already beaten them in the past. With Roger each game became more difficult. I started putting more pressure on my shoulders in every match because I wanted to beat him with all my might; Even before the start I felt that it was not a normal game for me. And for his part, of course, he didn’t want to lose to a guy he’s beaten thousands of times before…”
2023-12-28 19:35:07
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