Shapovalov is no dirtballer, but could win on clay in a whole new way

PARIS—“How long are we gonna keep playing?” Denis Shapovalov shouted toward the chair umpire as he raised his hands in frustration.

What was the source of the teenager’s angst? If you believed Shapovalov’s words, it was the rain that was beginning to drench the clay inside Court Suzanne Lenglen on Tuesday morning. If you looked at the scoreboard, though, you might have guessed a different reason: he had just been broken by John Millman, and trailed 4-1 in the first set.

Whatever the reason for his complaints, by the time Shapovalov had sat down for the changeover, they had taken on a philosophical air.

“Why are we out here?” Shapovalov moaned to no one in particular.

Were we about to see the downside of Shapovalov’s youth? Was this very French Open moment—rain falling hard, but not hard enough to move tournament officials to act—going to prove to be too much for the Roland Garros rookie? While Shapovalov has had a surrisingly successful clay season, he’s hardly a natural on the surface.

“I mean, last year I didn’t win one single match on clay,” he said a few weeks ago in Madrid. “So going into this year, I didn’t have any expectations or confidence at all.”

After reaching the semifinals in Madrid, and winning two more matches in Rome, Shapovalov does have expectations on clay. And while he’s just 19, he knows by now that into every tennis life a little rain must fall. After play was stopped at 2-5 in the first set, he grabbed the new balls and became a much calmer and more positive young man.

“The court was getting pretty heavy, but the balls especially, they were getting fluffy and heavy,” Shapovalov said. “But at the same time, I felt like I played really well. Really used the advantage of the new balls, really tried to dictate the first couple of games when they came out.”

Shapovalov came to net and ended a point with a nice drop volley, held serve with an ace, and broke when Millman, with the set on his racquet, lost all feel on his backhand side. By the time he was up 6-5, Shapovalov was giving the style-loving French crowd something to appreciate. He snapped off a backhand approach with enough pace to draw a loud chorus of “Oooooo”s from the audience.

“I feel like the fans really like me out here,” said Shapovalov, a big-stage lover who seemed thrilled to be on Lenglen. “It’s great to be here. First time main draw. First time seeded. Every match is a bonus for me.”

WATCH—Match point from Shapovalov's win over Millman at Roland Garros:

You could see, in the contrast with his 28-year-old opponent, what makes Shapovalov such an exciting prospect. Millman, who has a solidly unspectacular baseline game and has never been ranked higher than No. 58, was at the mercy of Shapovalov’s slash-and-dash style. Any ball that landed in the vicinity of the service line was going to be dealt with severely. What makes Shapovalov’s forehand especially difficult to handle is his ability to go crosscourt, down the line, and inside out with equal facility. All three versions can look like his favorite shot.

Of the Next Genners, Shapovalov is the most fun to watch, because you never have to wait see him try to make something happen. With his wingspan, still-lengthening limbs, and leaping athleticism, he’s also a photographer’s dream. Shapovalov often hits his forehand falling away from the ball; that’s not how the textbooks teach it, but it works for him, and makes the shot more dramatic. At 19, he still has plenty of energy to waste.

But Shapovalov is also the rawest of the youth brigade. There are few sights in tennis more thrilling than seeing him connect with his one-handed backhand, but it’s also a shot that opponents can pick on. If he’s tight, he tends to lift up and send it long, and he hasn’t developed an effective, biting chip on that slide. None of that is a surprise for a player of his age.

By comparison, though, Alexander Zverev at 22 is a more polished and consistent tennis product. And Shapovalov knows it.

“There are so many things that I can probably sit here for hours talking to you about what I can improve,” Shapovalov said today. “On top of my mind, the return can get more solid. Definitely my first-serve percentage can go up, even though it’s a weapon for me...To me, it’s kind of positive that, today I am where I am, 25 in the world, and I feel like I have so much room to improve.”

For many North American players, who almost never grow up on clay, the European spring swing can feel like a lost cause, and a momentum stopper. Shapovalov, with his gambling, attacking, sometimes impatient style, doesn’t have a classic dirtballer’s game. But he seems determined to make the clay swing an integral part of his season.

“I told my team from the beginning of the year I want to play a lot of clay-court tournaments. Doesn’t matter the results. It’s not for this season, it’s not for next season. It’s really a goal just to get better long term.”

In his post-match interview on Tuesday, Shapovalov said that winning Roland Garros was a dream of his, and then he laughed, as if he had gotten a little ahead of himself—this was, after all, his first match win at the event.

Shapovalov also said those words in English. He admitted later that he took French classes when he was young, and he’s working on it now, but he’s “not really comfortable” speaking it in public.

“It’s definitely a goal for me to get fluent in French,” he said. “It’s a process, you know.”

Learning a new surface is a little like learning a new language. It’s a process. But if shots are the vocabulary words of tennis, he’s got everything he needs to speak clay with fluency someday—and maybe in a whole new way.

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