Denis Shapovalov was born in Tel Aviv to Russian parents and raised in Ontario, the product of a coaching mother who ran the academy where he learned the game. He turned pro in 2016 after a decorated junior career — a Wimbledon boys' singles title in 2016 and a junior ranking peak of No. 2 — and announced himself at the 2017 Canadian Open, where, ranked outside the top 100, he beat then-No. 2 Rafael Nadal in the third round and ran to the semifinals. At 18, he became the youngest player to reach a Masters 1000 semifinal in the rankings era.
The signature is a whippy one-handed backhand and a high-risk, high-reward game built on first-strike tennis — he goes for the lines, hunts the forehand, and lives or dies by the shot. At his best the lefty serve and shotmaking overwhelm; on flat days the unforced-error count climbs and the margins disappear. It's a watchable, all-or-nothing style that made him one of the most exciting members of a Canadian wave alongside Felix Auger-Aliassime, with whom he won the 2015 US Open boys' doubles title.
Shapovalov peaked at world No. 10 in September 2020 and has banked deep runs on every surface — a 2021 Wimbledon semifinal, a 2020 US Open quarterfinal, and a Masters final at the Paris Masters in 2019. His maiden ATP title came in Stockholm in 2019; he has since added hardware while figuring as a fixture in Canada's Davis Cup and team-event campaigns.
Now ranked No. 42, Shapovalov sits in the middle of the pack he once threatened to leapfrog, a veteran shotmaker still capable of taking out anyone on his day across the spring clay and grass swing toward Roland-Garros and Wimbledon.