"Has to try to put tennis as his priority": Denis Shapovalov not commited enough to be tennis force in scathing criticism from ex-coach

Former world No. 8 Mikhail Youzhny worked with Denis Shapovalov during his prime, but they parted ways in 2022 due to some disagreements. The ex-coach of 'Shapo' recently responded to an interview where he claimed that the Canadian wasn't entirely focused on tennis, leading to a decline in his performance.

While working together, Shapovalov reached the top 10 and achieved significant results, such as reaching the semifinals at the 2021 Wimbledon, the final of the 2019 Paris Masters, and winning the Nordic Open title. However, since 2022, he hasn't maintained consistency on the ATP Tour, and coupled with injuries, his ranking has dropped. He is currently ranked as the world No. 109.

According to Youzhny's comments on Tennis Majors, Shapovalov needs to make some off-court changes if he wants to regain the consistency he had in previous years: "I felt like I can’t bring him the change he needed. He is listening, but he is not fully doing what he needs to do in order to be a top player."

“Two or three years ago, he was one of the guys who could consistently be in the top ten, but for that to happen, he needed to change a few things outside tennis,” Youzhni added.

“He must be healthy 100%, first and foremost, and physically better. Main thing, he has to try to put tennis as his priority,” Russian coach stated. “It is his priority for most of the time, but in my opinion, he made some wrong decisions where he didn’t make tennis as the priority,” he added.

Mikhail Youzhny has been working with the Chilean Christian Garin (world No. 82) in recent weeks, preparing for the Australian Open, considering Garin's recent split with Andres Schneiter. The Russian coach mentioned that the former world No. 17 asked him to travel with him during the year: "Christian asked me to work with him, but I don’t have time at the moment. I told him we could train together a bit and maybe go to some tournaments, but I’m not sure."