Denis Viktorovich Shapovalov (born ) is a Canadian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 10 in singles by the ATP, achieved on September 21, 2020 and a doubles ranking of No. 44, achieved on February 24, 2020. He has won four ATP Tour singles titles and produced his best Grand Slam performance at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships, where he reached the semifinals. Shapovalov is the third highest-ranked Canadian singles male player in history behind Milos Raonic (world No. 3 in 2016) and Félix Auger-Aliassime (world No. 4 in 2026).
As a junior, he 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 semi-finals of the 2017 Canadian Open; at the age of 18, he became the youngest player ever to reach the semi-final of an ATP Masters 1000 tournament. The next year, Shapovalov continued his success with a second Masters semi-final 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 quarter-final at the 2020 US Open and his fourth Masters semi-final 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 quarter-final at the 2020 US Open, and the Masters level after making five quarter-finals and one semi-final. 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 quarter-final 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 quick endpoints, 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.
Early life Denis Viktorovich Shapovalov was born in Tel Aviv, Israel. His mother Tessa Shapovalova was born in Soviet Ukraine, and is a former tennis player in Israel who also played for the USSR national tennis team. She immigrated from the USSR to Tel Aviv, Israel, along with Denis' father Viktor Shapovalov during the Collapse of the Soviet Union. She eventually became a tennis coach in Vaughan, Ontario. His mother and her family are Ashkenazi Jewish (Ukrainian-Jewish), and his father's family is of Russian Orthodox Christian background. Shapovalov has one sibling, an older brother named Evgeniy, who was also born in Israel."Israel-born tennis star shines at the US Open," The Times of Israel.
The family emigrated from Israel to Canada, prior to Denis' first birthday. He then resided in Vaughan, Ontario. He started playing tennis at the Richmond Hill Country Club, where his mother got a job as a coach two weeks after arriving in Toronto from Tel Aviv. Denis began playing tennis at age 5 and quickly became obsessed with the game. When it became difficult to get Denis enough time on the Richmond Hill club's courts, his mother left her job there and eventually opened her tennis academy in Vaughan, named TessaTennis, to help give him a home base to train and to teach the game to other juniors. Shapovalov attended Stephen Lewis Secondary School in Vaughan. He is nicknamed "Shapo" or "Deni".
Career
Juniors When Shapovalov was 13, his training needs were too much for his mother to handle on her own. It was at this point that the family hired Adriano Fuorivia, a former manager of tennis development for Tennis Canada, to be his coach and travel with Shapovalov while his parents stayed home to run the academy. The relationship between Shapovalov and Adriano lasted four years, and included numerous junior and ITF futures titles, including the 2015 US Open Junior Doubles title and the 2016 Wimbledon Junior Singles title. In October 2013, Shapovalov won his first junior singles title at the ITF G5 in Burlington, Ontario. He captured his second singles title in April 2014 at the ITF G5 in Burlington. In July 2014, Shapovalov won the singles and doubles titles at the ITF G4 in San José. At the US Open in September 2015, he qualified in singles and made it to the third round for his second straight Grand Slam. In doubles, he won the title with partner Félix Auger-Aliassime. In October 2015, Shapovalov and fellow Canadians Félix Auger-Aliassime and Benjamin Sigouin captured the first Junior Davis Cup title for Canada in its history. At the French Open in May 2016, he advanced to the semi-finals in singles and the second round in doubles. At the beginning of July 2016, he captured his first G1 singles title after winning in Roehampton. A week later, Shapovalov became the third Canadian to win a junior Grand Slam singles title with a three-set victory over Alex de Minaur at the 2016 Wimbledon Championships. He also reached the doubles final with Félix Auger-Aliassime.
As a junior, he compiled a singles win-loss record of 86–32.
2015–16: Early years In late November 2015, Shapovalov won his first professional doubles title at the ITF Futures in Pensacola. In January 2016, he reached the doubles final at the ITF Futures in Sunrise. A week later, he captured his first professional singles title with a straight-set victory over Pedro Sakamoto at the ITF Futures in Weston. In March 2016, he reached the semi-finals of the Challenger Banque Nationale de Drummondville, beating his first top 100 player in Austin Krajicek before losing to Daniel Evans in three sets.
In April 2016, Shapovalov won his second and third singles titles after defeating world No. 286 Tennys Sandgren at the ITF 25K in Memphis and winning the ITF 10K in Orange Park over Miomir Kecmanović two weeks later. He also won the doubles title in Orange Park. In July 2016, Shapovalov was awarded a wildcard for the tournament in Washington, his first ATP main draw appearance. He was defeated by Lukáš Lacko in three sets. Shapovalov then was awarded a wildcard for the 2016 Rogers Cup the next week. In the first round, he upset world No. 19 Nick Kyrgios, beating him in three sets to win his first tour-level match. He was defeated by No. 40 Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets in the next round.
2017: Canadian Open semifinal, top 50 debut
In February 2017, Shapovalov was selected to play for the Canada Davis Cup team in the World Group 1st round tie against Great Britain, and lost his opener to Dan Evans. In the deciding rubber against Kyle Edmund, he accidentally hit the chair umpire, Arnaud Gabas, in the eye after launching a ball aimlessly towards the crowd in anger after dropping serve in the opening stages of the third set, leading to immediate disqualification for unsportsmanlike behaviour, and as a result, Great Britain won the tie 3–2.
In March in Gatineau, Shapovalov captured his fourth ITF Futures singles title after defeating Gleb Sakharov in straight sets. Two weeks later, he won his first ATP Challenger title with a victory over Ruben Bemelmans at the 75K in Drummondville, and was the youngest Canadian to win a Challenger until Félix Auger-Aliassime's victory at the Open Sopra Steria de Lyon later in the year. The next week, he was defeated by Mirza Bašić in the final of the ATP Challenger 50K in Guadalajara, stopping his winning streak at 17 matches. At the French Open in May, his first professional Grand Slam, he was defeated in the first round of qualifying by the first seed Marius Copil in three sets. In June, Shapovalov qualified for the ATP 500 at the Queen's Club Championships, his fourth ATP main draw but his first as a qualifier. In the first round, he defeated his second top 50 player, world No. 47 Kyle Edmund, before losing to world No. 14 Tomáš Berdych.
At Wimbledon in July, Shapovalov made his Grand Slam debut after he was awarded a wildcard for the main draw. He was defeated by Jerzy Janowicz in the opening round. At the end of the month, he won his second ATP Challenger title, defeating compatriot Peter Polansky in the final of the 75K in Gatineau.
Shapovalov experienced a significant breakthrough in August at the Canadian Open, defeating Rogério Dutra Silva for his second Masters 1000 win, then he defeated world No. 31 Juan Martín del Potro in the second round and world No. 2 Rafael Nadal in the next round, which was his first-ever match against a top 10 player. He went on to defeat world No. 42 Adrian Mannarino in the quarter-finals before bowing out to world No. 8 Alexander Zverev in the semi-finals, thus becoming the youngest player ever to reach an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final.
Despite his achievements at the Rogers Cup, Shapovalov had to qualify to enter the main draw of the US Open. In the qualifying rounds, he defeated Denis Kudla, Gastão Elias, and Jan Šátral. In the main draw, Shapovalov defeated Daniil Medvedev in the first round, then No. 8 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second. He reached the fourth round by defeating Kyle Edmund in four sets, becoming the youngest player to reach the fourth round since Michael Chang in 1989. He was defeated by world No. 19 Pablo Carreño Busta in the fourth round, after which he reached his then career-high ATP ranking of world No. 51 on September 11, 2017.
Shapovalov was offered a wildcard to the main draw of the Shanghai Masters in October where he lost in the first round to Viktor Troicki in three sets. He also lost in the first round of the Paris Masters two weeks later to Julien Benneteau. In November, Shapovalov competed in the inaugural Next Generation ATP Finals along with seven other top singles players aged 21 and under. Seeded third, Shapovalov finished third in his Group with a record of one win and two losses in round robin play, which was not enough to qualify for the semifinals.
2018: Top 30 debut
Shapovalov began his 2018 season at the Brisbane International, where he lost in the first round in both singles, to Kyle Edmund, and doubles, to eventual winners Henri Kontinen and John Peers. At the ASB Classic, he defeated Rogério Dutra Silva in the opening round but was knocked out in the second round to second seed Juan Martín del Potro in straight sets. At the Australian Open, Shapovalov won his first round match over Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets, but lost in the next round to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in five sets despite leading Tsonga 5–2 in the deciding set.