Canadian tennis player Denis Shapovalov has been one of the impressive youngsters on the tour. He has been creating quite an impact on the men’s tour and reached his first semifinal of a Grand Slam event at the Wimbledon Championships last year. Although he lost to Novak Djokovic in straight sets, it was still a very tight battle.

One of the key aspects of Shapovalov having success in recent years was because of the presence of former Russian star Mikhail Youzhny who joined his team and helped him improvise his game. 

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Denis Shapovalov introduced the Russian Star to his camp in 2019

In August 2019, the two formed a team and Denis achieved good results by reaching the quarterfinal of the US Open 2020 and the semifinal at Wimbledon 2021. 

Sadly, Mikhail and Denis parted ways sometime back. After winning his opening-round match at the Australian Open 2022, Shapovalov spoke about the split. 

The 22-year-old player stated, “It was after the season, a couple of weeks after Stockholm. I talked to him. It was very mutual. We still text and we continue to have a good relationship, but it just wasn’t working. Both of us weren’t achieving what we wanted to. Unfortunately, that’s the business of tennis sometimes. Just had to go a different direction.”

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He further added, “It’s super tough because I feel like anyone that I bring into my team, they’re like family to me. It was super tough to come to the decision for both of us to split.”

Began proceedings on a winning note Down Under

Coming to tennis, Shapovalov beat Serbian tennis player Laslo Dere in the opening round of the Australian Open 2022 in four sets. It was not the easiest of the matches but the Canadian player found a way to sail through the finishing line. 

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He will now face Kwon Soon-woo from South Korea in the second round. We wish him all the best for the upcoming matches and the remainder of the season.