Canada’s Denis Shapovalov walks onto the court to receive his championship ring during a ceremony honouring Canada’s Davis Cup championship team at Day 1 of the National Bank Open in Toronto, on Aug. 7, 2023.Cole Burston/The Canadian Press
Denis Shapovalov has been missing from the ATP Tour since July – the longest absence of his tennis career – because of an ongoing knee issue.
Aggravated by knee pain since October of 2022, the Canadian finally reached a breaking point during his round-of-16 loss to Roman Safiullin at Wimbledon last summer, then stepped away from competition to focus on fixing it.
Now the Canadian is poised to make his return this week in New Zealand with the new season under way. Having slipped out of the top 100, he’ll aim to rebuild his ranking and regain the form that once made him the world No. 10.
The 24-year-old from Richmond Hill, Ont., received a wild card into the main draw of the ASB Classic in Auckland – a tune-up for next week’s Australian Open – where he will begin his comeback against world No. 43 Sebastian Ofner of Austria in the first round.
“If I’m healthy and I’m playing well, I know where my ranking stands, so I don’t need to see a specific number next to my name,” Shapovalov said from Dubai last week before travelling Down Under. “I know the players that I can beat and how well I can play. But I had to start at Step 1, which is to get healthy.”
Shapovalov first felt the pain in his left knee while playing Daniil Medvedev in the final at Vienna, in late October of 2022. For months, he did physiotherapy and cut back his practices, hoping to limit the impact on the knee, which had a tear in the patellar tendon, plus tendinitis. But he kept competing.
“It was weighing on me,” Shapovalov said. “But we were trying to see if we could quick-fix it.”
He got opinions from 10 doctors, which left the young player’s head spinning over whose advice to follow. Even after the tear healed, the pain would come and go. Some days he felt he was getting better – one pain-free day followed by a terrible one. It compromised his ability to push off the leg.
Playing matches without sufficient practice took its toll on Shapovalov, who first burst onto the scene as a teenager after winning a boys title at Wimbledon then later stunning Rafael Nadal in Montreal at the Canadian Open in 2017. Shapovalov is known for his exciting, eye-catching athletic style but has also became famous for his temper – outbursts at umpires, smashing racquets and whipping balls around the court.
The Canadian lefty began 2023 ranked No. 18. He notched 13 wins that year, against 13 losses. He has earned more than US$11-million and has one ATP title, but has yearned for more.
“By the time I was in third or fourth rounds at tournaments, I was pretty weak in the knee, and when I feel like I can’t move 100 per cent or be myself I don’t feel like I’m the same player,” Shapovalov said. “I don’t want to just make it to the third round any more. I want to be in the semis and finals of tournaments. The No. 1 thing it affected was my confidence.”
During his loss in four sets to Safiullin at Wimbledon on July 9, he remembers calling a medic for painkillers, and struggling to get himself back on court. That defeat finally prompted his break.
“At Wimbledon, it got to the point where I couldn’t really walk against Safiullin,” Shapovalov said. “After that, I said to my team ‘there’s really no point for me to continue to play because I don’t feel like I can achieve what I want to with the way that my body is right now, so we need to figure this out.’”
He reached out to John Theodoropoulos, the orthopedic doctor of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Shapovalov saw the doctor this fall while both were in Stockholm – the tennis star visiting his fiancée, Swedish WTA player Mirjam Bjorklund, and Theodoropoulos with the Leafs while they played in the NHL’s Global Series.
Shapovalov was relieved he didn’t need surgery and doesn’t discuss specifics, but says “since then the knee has been feeling so much better.”
“The last two, three months, I’ve been able to practice at 100 per cent, which I hadn’t been able to do in more than a year,” he said.
Time away comes at a cost on the ATP Tour. He was unable to defend his points from reaching the semi-finals of the Tokyo Open in 2022, nor Vienna or Seoul, where he made the finals that year. Now he’s ranked No. 109.
“I’m very lucky to have a team around me of people that do care and are not just ready to leave if you’re injured,” said Shapovalov, crediting coach Matt Daly for helping him. “My coach never tried to push me into doing anything. He’s much more logical and rational about things, I think, than other coaches on tour who just want you to play, play, play.”
Tournaments may choose to grant him wild cards. He could also utilize his protected ranking to enter events, something the ATP allows players who missed six months or more because of injury. For nine months or nine events, if needed, Shapovalov can enter at a rank of 27th, which was the average ranking from the first three months he was away (although it doesn’t help seeding).
Shapovalov says the time apart from competition was “humbling.” He enjoyed things that time doesn’t often allow him, such as a vacation in Maldives with Bjorklund and going to her tournaments to support her.
“I feel like in this time I’ve matured as a person, become more confident in myself and decisions that I make for my tennis and my life,” Shapovalov said. “You never really know how long you can play. You see guys like Novak, Roger and Rafa play into their late 30s or 40s but you never really know if that will be the case for you. The time away gave me perspective.”
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story had an incorrect headline that said Denis Shapovalov was returning to the Australian Open. This version has been corrected.