Denis Shapovalov, Canadian tennis player
Denis Viktorovich Shapovalov ( SHAH-pə-VAH-ləv, -ləf; Hebrew: דניס שפובלוב; Russian: Денис Викторович Шаповалов [ʂəpɐˈvaɫəf]; born 15 April 1999) is a Canadian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 10 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he first achieved in September 2020. He is the third highest-ranked Canadian male player in history behind Félix Auger-Aliassime (world No. 9 in 2022) and Milos Raonic (world No. 3 in 2016). He has won one ATP Tour singles title and produced his best Grand Slam performance at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships, where he reached the semifinals. Shapovalov also has a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 44, which he attained in February 2020.
As a junior, Shapovalov was ranked as high as No. 2 in the world. He won two junior Grand Slam titles, his first being the doubles title at the 2015 US Open with Auger-Aliassime and his second being the singles title at the 2016 Wimbledon Championships. As a professional, Shapovalov broke into the top 100 for the first time in 2017 after making the semifinals of the 2017 Canadian Open; at the age of 18, he became the youngest player ever to reach the semifinal of an ATP Masters 1000 tournament. The next year, Shapovalov continued his success with a second Masters semifinal appearance at the 2018 Madrid Open and ended the year ranked inside the top 30, making him the youngest player in the group. In 2019, Shapovalov won his first ATP title at the 2019 Stockholm Open and made his first Masters finals appearance at the 2019 Paris Masters, after which he ended the year ranked No. 15. For 2020, Shapovalov reached his maiden Grand Slam quarterfinal at the 2020 US Open and his fourth Masters semifinal at the 2020 Italian Open, taking him to his career-high ranking of world No. 10. He made two more tour final appearances in 2021.
With partner Rohan Bopanna, Shapovalov has also succeeded in doubles at the Grand Slam level, having reached his first quarterfinal at the 2020 US Open, and the Masters level after making five quarterfinals and one semifinal. Together, they also reached their first doubles final at the 2019 Stuttgart Open, which brought Shapovalov past Adil Shamasdin to become the No. 1 Canadian doubles player. After their quarterfinal appearance at the 2019 Paris Masters, he entered the top 50 in doubles for the first time.
A left-handed player with a one-handed backhand, Shapovalov plays an aggressive, high-risk ground game and has some of the strongest groundstrokes on the tour, complemented by his powerful forehand and serve. He also often plays serve-and-volley to quickly end points, which has rewarded him on faster surfaces. In recognition of his breakout tennis success in 2017, his peers on the ATP Tour voted him as the ATP Most Improved Player and ATP Star of Tomorrow. That same year, he was also awarded the Lionel Conacher Award as Canada's male athlete of the year, making him the second tennis player to have won the award since its inception in 1932.
1999Apr, 15
Denis Shapovalov
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Events on 1999
- 21Jan
United States Coast Guard
War on Drugs: In one of the largest drug busts in American history, the United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 4,300 kilograms (9,500 lb) of cocaine on board. - 12Mar
Czech Republic
Former Warsaw Pact members the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland join NATO. - 8Apr
Indian National Congress
Haryana Gana Parishad, a political party in the Indian state of Haryana, merges with the Indian National Congress. - 29May
International Space Station
Space Shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the International Space Station. - 27Nov
Helen Clark
The centre-left Labour Party takes control of the New Zealand government with leader Helen Clark becoming the first elected female Prime Minister in New Zealand's history.