Denis Shapovalov was one win away from reaching the Wimbledon final in 2021.
Shapovalov was 22 years old at Wimbledon in 2021, and had already experienced reaching a Grand Slam quarter-final at the 2020 US Open.
As the 10th seed at Wimbledon, where he had only previously won one match, Shapovalov beat the likes of Andy Murray, Roberto Bautista Agut and Karen Khachanov to reach his first major semi-final.
This is where Shapovalov would play top seed and at the time five-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic, and five years later he has now admitted the mistake he made in their semi-final.
Denis Shapovalov admits he was ‘too confident’ against Novak Djokovic
Coming into the semi-final with Djokovic, Shapovalov had lost all six previous matches he had played against the Serbian.
Despite this, Shapovalov made a positive start against Djokovic and got an early break, before failing to serve out the first set.
Djokovic would beat Shapovalov 7-6(3), 7-5, 7-5, and the Canadian has now admitted that he was perhaps a little overconfident after his positive start to the semi-final.
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“Yeah, I think that was a bit of the issue against Novak,” Shapovalov said in a video on the ATP Tour’s YouTube channel.
“I kind of got an early break on him in that semi-final and before the match I thought okay, obviously against Novak I don’t have many chances, but I’ll try to see what I can do against him.
“I honestly felt like I was outplaying him the majority of the first set and maybe a little bit too confident in that moment, you know he kind of stayed with me, was able to break me back and get that first set, so that killed a little bit of confidence.
“I kind of felt in that moment, like okay I’m outplaying the best grass court player at the moment. I felt like I could definitely win this match and who knows in the final, anything could happen, so it’s definitely one of those experience losses.”
What is Denis Shapovalov’s best Grand Slam result since reaching the Wimbledon semi-finals?
Shapovalov has not been able to return to a Grand Slam semi-final since doing so at Wimbledon in 2021.
The 27-year-old’s best result at a Grand Slam tournament since then came at the 2022 Australian Open, when Shapovalov reached the quarter-finals.
Shapovalov has struggled to perform at majors in recent years, having failed to surpass the third round of any Grand Slam in his last 10 appearances.
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The world number 41’s best result at Wimbledon since 2021 came in 2023, when Shapovalov reached the fourth round.
Shapovalov will be hoping to return to the second week of a major tournament for the first time since then at Wimbledon this year, where the main draw starts on Monday, June 29.
