Denis Shapovalov

Early life

Shapovalov was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, the son of Tessa and Viktor Shapovalov. His parents were Russian-Israeli citizens. His mother is Jewish, and his father is Greek Orthodox Christian. Shapovalov has one sibling, his older brother Evgeniy.

The family moved from Israel to Canada before Denis' first birthday. He started to play tennis at the club his mother was coaching at when he was five years old. His mother Tessa opened her own tennis club in Vaughan, Ontario, named TessaTennis, to help give him a home base to train at and to teach the game to other juniors. She is still coaching him along with Canada's Davis Cup captain Martin Laurendeau. Shapovalov attended Stephen Lewis Secondary School in Vaughan. He is nicknamed "Shapo".

Juniors

In October 2013, Shapovalov won his first junior singles title at the ITF G5 in Burlington. 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 compatriot 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 semifinals in singles and to 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.

Junior Grand Slam results - Singles:

Australian Open: 2R (2015)
French Open: SF (2016)
Wimbledon: W (2016)
US Open: 3R (2015)

Junior Grand Slam results - Doubles:

Australian Open: 1R (2015)
French Open: 2R (2016)
Wimbledon: F (2016)
US Open: W (2015)

2015–16

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 semifinals 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

In February, 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 hit the match 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, defaulting the match and tie as a consequence. 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 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 in London, 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 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 Rogers Cup when 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 quarterfinals before bowing out to world No. 8 Alexander Zverev Jr. in the semifinals, thus becoming the youngest player ever to reach an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semifinal. 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.

Singles performance timeline

This table is current through the 2017 Davis Cup World Group Play-offs.