Shapovalov: An idol in the making - US Open 2017
Think back to your childhood. You'd wake up, and there would almost always be a poster of your idol taped to the wall. In an ideal but usually unrealistic world, you'd enjoy the same fame as that idol one day.
A few weeks ago, while crashing in compatriot and 2016 US Open boys' singles champion Felix Auger-Aliassime's basement during the Masters 1000 event in Montreal, 18-year-old Denis Shapovalov woke up every day and saw a poster of No.
The thing is, Shapovalov would actually beat Nadal that week en route to the semifinals, launching himself into the Top 70 in the world.
Just a few weeks later, the young Canadian is a young rock star in the tennis world, beating the likes of No. 8 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on his way to the fourth round in New York.
Leaving the practice court Saturday, fans screamed, "Denis!" and pressed against the barricades just as strongly as they did minutes earlier when Maria Sharapova walked by.
And with a wide-open bottom half of the men's singles draw, who knows what lies in the world No. It's as if Shapovalov didn't have to save four match points in the opening round of that tournament in Montreal.
Yet he did in a second-set tiebreak, eventually beating the 64th-ranked player in the world, Rogerio Dutra Silva, in three sets.
What if two shots that Dutra Silva hit that day did not float a couple of inches long? What if Shapovalov did not hit an ace on the final match point he faced? What if the inexperienced teenager did not hit an immaculate backhand drop volley from below his knees all the way back at the service line to fend off a dipping forehand passing shot coming from his opponent?.
Would we really be here today, watching a full-fledged superstar standing as arguably the favorite ahead of his fourth-round match against No. 12 Pablo Carreno Busta if he lost any one of those match points?.
"Actually it's unbelievable," Dutra Silva said on the grounds of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center Saturday. "At that moment, I could not imagine him playing this level. He plays so good. But not this level.".
Nobody knows a match better than your opponent. And when Shapovalov scooped Dutra Silva's dipping passing shot on the Brazilian's second match point, he knew that the Canadian was special.
"For me the difference was in the volley," Dutra Silva said. "Low ball, and then he make it like it was just natural and walked for the changeover [in the tiebreak] like nothing happened. I was like, 'Whoa, this guy.
Shapovalov is only 18. Playing on center court in Montreal in front of anxious home fans waiting to see just how talented their prospect is comes with pressure. Yet the Canadian owned the moment. Like Roger Federer would.
Like Rafael Nadal would. Like you'd expect someone on your childhood poster to. Not like an 18-year-old crashing in his friend's basement.
"When I had an opportunity to come in, I came in," Shapovalov said after the match. "Im not going to change my game style and change the way I play just because its match point.".
Top-seeded Karolina Pliskova saved a match point herself in her third-round match against No. 27 Shuai Zhang Saturday. She could very well leave New York with her first major trophy, while maintaining the No.
"If youre match point down, you dont really think, like, about what to play or if to hold it in the rally, so I didnt have any other choice," Pliskova said.
"I just went through it and prayed that its going to be in, and it was in.". Pliskova went for it, and played her game.
Just six men have saved at least one match point before eventually winning the US Open during the Open era. Stan Wawrinka did it last year at the US Open.
Novak Djokovic slapped a blazing forehand return past Roger Federer in the 2011 semifinals in Flushing Meadows.
Boris Becker won his only title in New York after smacking a forehand off the net, which fortunately for him bounced away from Derrick Rostagno and into the court.
Who knows how the course of tennis history would have changed if those match points would have gone the other way?.
Shapovalov saved four of them against Dutra Silva. Then he got to play and beat his idol, Juan Martin del Potro, creating an atmosphere in which he said, "my ears almost popped.
They [the fans] were cheering so loud, it was insane." Then he beat Nadal. And here the Canadian teenager is, a long way from waking up to a poster of the Spaniard.
Companies somewhere are probably printing posters with his picture on them right now. "My whole life has changed in the past five days. Its crazy how it is," Shapovalov said.
"I go from being not known to, you know, being so known in the tennis world – in Canada, in general. Its going to be a little bit of a change to me. Im going to have to adapt.".
Well, Shapovalov better keep adapting because his run in New York is not done yet. And it's quite apparent that while Shapovalov may not end up winning the tournament this year, his stardom is here to stay.
And to think, one point could have changed it all.
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