Tennis: All Purpose Tennis Thread X

[Cole Caulifield]

2h45 of pure joy. Hard to believe this outcome. What a match ! This kid will be great !

 

[CanadianFlyer88]

Incredible match by Shapovalov. Great way to announce himself.

 

[Loosie]

Live ranking of #100 right now.

 

[Kurtz]

That was amazing. Milos might have hit his ceiling and Eugenie may have been a flash in the pan, but this kid looks for real.

 

[MsMeow]

This was an incredible match!!!

 

[theaub]

That was amazing. Milos might have hit his ceiling and Eugenie may have been a flash in the pan, but this kid looks for real.

I mean I'd say his ceiling being the same as Milos is probably a top 5% outcome.

The tools are there though. A win tomorrow and he's into the top 70.

 

[kihei]

Shapovalov showed a lot of energy and poise. I don't think he really feels the volley game yet, but he is only 18, just. He scrambles a lot at the net and needs sharper placements with his volleys than he got away with in juniors. Life is a little easier for lefthanders when they first come up-- eventually other players will develop a book on him. But, man, he looks like a star in the making to me.

 

[theaub]

The volley game was dreadful - can't even count how many times in the first couple of sets he came to the net and was an inch away from completely whiffing. He found it for one point in the tiebreak though which was good to see.

The forehand and the serve down the T are major league, the backhand is good enough and his movement looked really good (although he did slip a lot it seemed). No reason he can't finish the year barking at the top 50.

 

[kihei]

Hopefully the rain stays away and I get to watch Wozniacki/Pliskova and Stephens/Safarova in the afternoon session tomorrow. Really looking forward to the first match especially.

 

[kihei]

At the moment, Shapovalov is knocking on the door to qualify for the Next Gen tournament in Milan in November. Eight 21 and under players will compete, with the first seven determined by ATP Race ranking (not the "official" ATP ranking, in other words) and the eighth by wild card. As of right now, Shapovalov misses by one spot, standing in eighth place among some very good young players. If he beats Mannarino tomorrow which is a big "if" (gotta be a letdown after tonight, plus Mannarino will see him coming), he would move into the fifth spot, just behind Coric but ahead of Donaldson, Chung, Medvedev, and Tiafoe. That's pretty heady company. He would be the youngest player.

 

[discostu]

At the moment, Shapovalov is knocking on the door to qualify for the Next Gen tournament in Milan in November. Eight 21 and under players will compete, with the first seven determined by ATP Race ranking (not the "official" ATP ranking, in other words) and the eighth by wild card. As of right now, Shapovalov misses by one spot, standing in eighth place among some very good young players. If he beats Mannarino tomorrow which is a big "if" (gotta be a letdown after tonight, plus Mannarino will see him coming), he would move into the fifth spot, just behind Coric but ahead of Donaldson, Chung, Medvedev, and Tiafoe. That's pretty heady company. He would be the youngest player.

I'm guessing he's very likely to make it. He'll have a lot more opportunity to pick up points now that he's going to be in the top 100. He started the year on the future circuit. He's going to get a lot more opportunities in the fall.

What an amazing result. I think Raonic was the same age as Denis is when he had his breakout at the Australian Open, but even then, it took Raonic a long time before he knocked off any of the big guns.

 

[Hossa]

I'm guessing he's very likely to make it. He'll have a lot more opportunity to pick up points now that he's going to be in the top 100. He started the year on the future circuit. He's going to get a lot more opportunities in the fall.

What an amazing result. I think Raonic was the same age as Denis is when he had his breakout at the Australian Open, but even then, it took Raonic a long time before he knocked off any of the big guns.

Raonic was 20 years and about two months at the Aussie Open in 2011 when he started his climb, so Shapovalov is almost two years ahead of Raonic in terms of breaking into the top 100.

But the point remains that a stunner of a victory like yesterday is a far cry from consistently competing with the top players in the world. It's a remarkable achievement, and Shapovalov is ahead of the curve - youngest ever QF at a Masters series tournament - by any metric.

Will be interesting to see how he progresses further and how other players adjust to a spunky lefty kid once they start getting a read on him. Pretty exciting stuff.

 

[discostu]

Raonic was 20 years and about two months at the Aussie Open in 2011 when he started his climb, so Shapovalov is almost two years ahead of Raonic in terms of breaking into the top 100.

So he was. I don't know why, but I recalled him being younger, probably due to him coming out of nowhere. I think the tennis world also had few other youngsters coming up at the time, that Raonic rise was a big deal. It feels like there's a competitive field out there of the next generation, but, that Denis is the youngest of the bunch (although, I'm eager to see what Felix Auger Aliassime does when he gets healthy).

 

[Paxton Fettel]

This is ridiculious, Russian Canadians...

 

[Tuggy]

Mannarino next for Denis. A letdown is almost expected after last night.

Also laughed in his post match interview saying that he was sleeping in Felix's basement and woke up to a Nadal poster on the wall.

Those two are future top 10 talents, barring injury.

 

[Loosie]

Sportsnet is airing the match again this morning at 10 AM for those that missed it:

 

[Cloned]

Too bad Raonic lost earlier otherwise we could have eventually had the cliche "present vs. the future" of Canada match.

Also, Oleksiak-Shapovalov would be a pretty impressive rising sports power couple.

 

[kihei]

This is ridiculious, Russian Canadians...

Hockey hybrids--our scientific labs have been working on it for years. Just got the sport wrong in this case.

 

[Cloned]

Hockey hybrids--our scientific labs have been working on it for years. Just got the sport wrong in this case.

We could also use some more in soccer.

 

[kihei]

Mannarino next for Denis. A letdown is almost expected after last night.

Also laughed in his post match interview saying that he was sleeping in Felix's basement and woke up to a Nadal poster on the wall.

Those two are future top 10 talents, barring injury.

Don't think I would bet on that quite yet, though I agree that the potential looks to be in place. Certainly both players are off to brilliant starts but I want to see what happens when the big guns start adjusting to the new kids on the block.

 

[Cloned]

Don't think I would bet on that quite yet, though I agree that the potential looks to be in place. Certainly both players are off to brilliant starts but I want to see what happens when the big guns start adjusting to the new kids on the block.

Denis' game has the potential to translate better against the big guns than Raonic's, IMO.

Raonic still lacks versatility compared to the best players, whereas Denis looks like he has the type of game which can match up against better all-around players.

 

[Loosie]

It's too bad he's the first match in the evening session, I need to go to Ajax to get my oldest son from my in-laws tonight. I'll be in the middle of Firday 401 traffic when the match starts.

 

[discostu]

Denis' game has the potential to translate better against the big guns than Raonic's, IMO.

Raonic still lacks versatility compared to the best players, whereas Denis looks like he has the type of game which can match up against better all-around players.

When Raonic broke through, it was interesting as many people assumed that guys like Federer and Nadal would be out of the picture by now, and he would have a chance to establish himself during this period. But, the old guard has kept going.

Now, a guy like Shapovalov looks like he might stand to benefit, presuming that Federer is not an immortal being that will play forever.

Regardless, getting a big win against the world number 2 and one of greatest of all time while he's playing is going to give a confidence boost.

 

[Hadoop]

Stunning victory from Shapavalov last night. Agreed that there's a lot of unknowns here as IMO he has a game that is stylistically unlike anyone on the ATP. That said his variety of offensive weapons (serve, FH, BH), willingness to come to the net and composure has made me a believer.

And he's just 18 and still filling out (he's listed as 6'0, 150 on the ATP website), so the sky's the limit.

 

[Loosie]

So no matter what happens today Shapovalov will be playing in Vancouver and not Cincy. He was already committed to playing in Vancouver, so he can't pull out of Vancouver to then play in Cincy.