Denis Shapovalov has experience of playing Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
Shapovalov made his ATP Tour debut in 2016, when he was just 17 years old and ‘The Big Three’ of Djokovic, Nadal and Federer were all still competing for major titles.
Nadal and Federer are now retired, but Shapovalov still had the opportunity to play at least one match against them both, as well as with Djokovic.
Now, Shapovalov has revealed which of the three he found the most difficult to play, as well as who he found the easiest to compete against.
Denis Shapovalov claims Rafael Nadal was the easiest of ‘The Big Three’ to play
Shapovalov spoke to former Wimbledon semi-finalist Sam Querrey in an interview on the ATP Tour’s YouTube channel.
In this interview, Querrey asked Shapovalov to name the toughest player he had ever faced and it was Djokovic who stood out the most to him.
“There’s a lot of tricky players, but I would have to go with Novak,” said Shapovalov. “Just because of the record, I think I’m 0-9 [actually 0-8] or something against him, I know I played him a bunch in a short amount of time when I was just coming up, so I think that was a little bit tricky.
“But yeah I just haven’t been able to get over the line with him. You know, we have had a lot of close matches, but I’ve never been able to beat him.”
Novak Djokovic is the tennis GOAT… Prove us wrong
Shapovalov was then asked to name the top player he did not mind playing as much, with the former top 10 player picking Nadal.
When explaining his reasoning for picking Nadal, Shapovalov claimed that he knew ‘how to hurt’ the 22-time Grand Slam champion.
“I mean, I only played Roger once and he toyed with me, I felt like an absolute junior on court with him,” Shapovalov said about facing Federer. “…I felt like Rafa, when he was playing too good, it was too good, but I knew what he was going to do, so I kind of knew how to hurt him and I knew how to beat him.
“When he did the things he does well, when he executed it well there was nothing I could do, but I felt like I had a lot of chances against him.
“You know, I beat him on clay, the year before I kind of had him there in Rome and obviously I beat him in Montreal the first time, so he was for sure the one I had the most success with.”
What would have happened if Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner played at the same time as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal?
Denis Shapovalov vs Rafael Nadal Head-to-Head
Although Shapovalov found Nadal the easiest to play of The Big Three, he still has a negative win-loss record against the Spaniard.
After playing each other six times, Nadal led the head-to-head against Shapovalov 4-2.
Shapovalov’s wins over Nadal came in their first meeting at the 2017 Canadian Open and their last at the 2022 Italian Open.
| Year | Tournament | Result |
| 2017 | Canadian Open (R16) | Shapovalov beat Nadal, 3-6 6-4 7-6(4) |
| 2018 | Italian Open (R16) | Nadal beat Shapovalov, 6-4 6-1 |
| 2019 | Davis Cup (F) | Nadal beat Shapovalov, 6-3 7-6(7) |
| 2021 | Italian Open (R16) | Nadal beat Shapovalov, 3-6 6-4 7-6(3) |
| 2022 | Australian Open (QF) | Nadal beat Shapovalov, 6-3 6-4 4-6 3-6 6-3 |
| 2022 | Italian Open (R16) | Shapovalov beat Nadal, 1-6 7-5 6-2 |
However, Shapovalov did something against Nadal that he was never able to do against Federer and is yet to do against Djokovic by beating him.
Djokovic dominates the head-to-head against Shapovalov 8-0, while Federer won their only meeting at the 2019 Miami Open.
