By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Monday February 10, 2025

By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday February 9, 2025

Former Top-10 player Denis Shapovalov.

Future Top-10 player Denis Shapovalov?

After his commanding blitz of the Dallas Open draw last week, it’s hard to imagine anything but. Shapovalov played jaw-dropping tennis from the moment he was down a set to top-seeded Taylor Fritz in the round of 16.



Suddenly, no matter how much risk he took on, he couldn’t miss. And as he continued to make improbably good winners from all over the court, we had to recalculate the definition of risk in Shapovalov’s shots. If he can make them routinely, is it really risky?

He had a funny comment during his post-title interview with the Tennis Channel desk that summed up his relationship with risk, actually.

“Honestly I think that’s a misinterpretation that people have,” he said. “When everything is lining up and things are going in for me, it seems like I’m doing it unfoolishly and when I’m missing it seems like I’m doing it foolishly.”

“That’s kind of how it is with my game, I need to go for it day in and day out, obviously try to play smart and try to figure out the opponent, but at the end of the day, with a game style like mine when things are working it looks really good and when things aren’t working it looks like I’m tanking out there.”

Casper Ruud, who lost to Shapovalov in straight sets in Sunday’s final in Dallas, had his own take on Shapovalov’s current form.

“It’s great to see you back playing so well – a little bit annoying today, but really well-played all week.”

Annoying is one way to put it, but for fans who like to see a player play the sport in a fever dream of sorts, Shapovalov’s tennis is more inspiring. This week in Dallas the Canadian executed at a freakisly high level, and many of his best shots were at a degree of difficulty that many others wouldn't even dare to try on the practice court.

The looseness of his limbs, the whip of his racquet, the torque of his one-handed backhand. Reasons we fell in love with his game when he stormed onto the scene in 2017, defeating Rafael Nadal on home soil in Montreal, in his second appearance at a Masters 1000 event. At that event, Shapovalov played with gusto, and he did it in a way that only a hyper elite athlete could do.

Those are the reasons we fell in love with his game all over again last week. Because when he’s healthy, and confident, that’s the type of jaw-dropping tennis that Shapovalov can produce.

His ranking was 100 spots lower this time last year, but not because he had lost his ability to play. It was simply due to the knee injury that just didn’t allow him to play freely.

“It was a big question if I would even return to tennis, with my knee injury, I wasn’t really able to get back on court without pain for quite a while, so to work my way back and to win two titles in the last couple of months, it really means a lot and all the work that I’ve been putting into every session is paying off,” Shapovalov said on Sunday, adding:

“It seems like things were just clicking. Maybe I was getting a little bit lucky, catching a few lines, I came up with a big volley in the last game on my serve. For sure, in general, I’m not sure if I’ve ever beaten so many top guys in a row, in one week, so it was definitely a phenomenal week for me.”

Shapovalov became the first player to defeat each of the top three seeds at a hardcourt event since 2020, and the first one to defeat three Top-10 players at an ATP 500 event since Nick Kyrgios at Acapulco in 2019.

It’s a testament to how good he can be when he’s feeling it.

“My confidence just grew,” Shapovalov explained, referring to the boost he got after upsetting fourth-ranked Fritz in Dallas. “Beating a guy like Taylor 7-6 in the third, it gives you a lot of confidence. I’ve been able to just play my game and rely on my shots much more – I think it happens a lot in tennis, when you beat a tough opponent you gain a lot of confidence and it frees you up quite a bit.”

Last but not least, the serve played a huge role in Shapovalov’s success. He used the wide serve to the ad-side to great effect, and he managed his service games exceptionally well when under stress. If there was one element of Shapovalov’s game that we haven’t seen before this Dallas run, maybe it was that – his ability to manage big moments and to play stress-free no matter what the score.

At 25 years old, Denis Shapovalov is still very young. Now that he’s won his biggest ATP title to date, it’s hard not to wonder: what if he keeps improving? What if he continues to beat back the pressure and play this type of tennis against top players?

The answer is simple: He’ll be back in the Top-10 and a threat to go deep in the biggest tournaments. He may not do it every week, but when he’s on, as we learned in Dallas, he’s damn near unstoppable.