jazzyg wrote: ↑Wed Jan 26, 2022 5:46 pm
I've always felt analysts were harder on Shapovalov than any other young player and agree with every word you just wrote.
He stayed positive despite losing the first two sets, turned the match around and easily could have won it. He probably always will be more subject to loose games than other top players, but he is learning how to win anyway and has a style different than any of the other top players. I don't like some of his histrionics during matches, but his game, to me, is the most aesthetically pleasing of anyone on tour right now. His athleticism and power bother Rafa. There's a reason he beat him when he was 18 and had match points against him last year on clay--his worst surface and Nadal's best.
Prediction: Deuce's head is going to explode when Shapovalov and Andreescu win the same slam in the next two or three years.
The time that Denis beat Nadal that you refer to was in Canada. That's why Denis won, pure and simple.
I'm not saying the result was fixed - but let's just say that Denis (and Tennis Canada) had more motivation to win that match than Nadal did. If they had played at a Major at that same exact time, and both players were healthy - ANY Major - there is no way in hell that Denis would have won.
Strange results occur more in non-Majors than in Majors - especially in the weeks preceding a Major - because top players sometimes decide that they'd rather rest than play another match, etc. This is rather obvious.
That time that Denis beat Nadal in Montreal reminded me of when hometown boy Simon Larose (ranked 314) beat Gustavo Kuerten (ranked 14 and winner of a couple of Majors and several Masters 1000s) at the same venue.
Simon Who?...
If Denis is going to win a Major, both he and his game will need to mature enormously. His game looks good - "aesthetically pleasing", as you say - but that counts for nothing. It's results that count. Monfils's game is nice looking, too... Kyrgios can hit any shot from anywhere... Arazi was a magician with a racquet... None of it means much if there is not maturity to accompany the flashiness.
As for Andreescu... there's a higher likelihood that her career is essentially finished already than that she'll win another Major.