Denis Shapovalov: I would love to play as long as Roger Federer is
In a press conference at the last month's Rotterdam Open following his straight-set win over Franko Skugor, Denis Shapovalov commented on how perspective towards him changed since when he defeated Rafael Nadal in the Rogers Cup of Montreal in 2017. "All at once, I went from a kid who’s playing Challengers, who is promising but on his way up, to all of a sudden being top 50 in the world, and all the cameras are on me," said Shapovalov. "So I had to change the way I am. I had to mature a lot quicker, I had to deal with all the media, and it wasn’t easy, to be honest. It was really distracting, and I feel like, at the end of that season, I wasn’t able to play my best tennis, just because my mind was somewhere else. To be honest, in the beginning, when I had that phase, I hated the tour, I didn’t want to travel, I wanted to stay home. But I started to learn to embrace it, and by the middle of the season last year, I really started to enjoy it. And it’s something that is part of me now, that I want to do this for as long as possible. I would love to play as long as Roger [Federer] is.”
He is satisfied with his past season: “Some people mention I had a really unsuccessful [2018], and I’m thinking, I’m 27 in the world, I was 50 last year… There are always people that say you should be winning titles, doing this and that. And I try to tell them, I’m only 19 and everyone’s going at their own speed… But it never got me down, I’ve always stayed motivated, positive.”
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2ObQrNg
No comments