OMNIUM BANQUE NATIONALE

August 3, 2026

Denis Shapovalov

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the press conference of Denis Shapovalov. First of all, welcome back to Montreal, Denis. I know last week has been another good week for you in Los Cabos overall, even though it was a little bit pitiful in the final. But how do you feel about your condition and your preparation right now?

DENIS SHAPOVALOV: Yeah, very good. Definitely a great week in Los Cabos.

Ran out of a little bit of energy there at the end, but for sure, I mean, played a lot of great matches, coming back from an injury, so never easy. Definitely couldn't have asked for more from myself for a week like that, and yeah, excited to be back here in Montreal.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How do you see lining up two tournaments like this with not much opportunity to practice on this surface with the fatigue that you had in Los Cabos?

DENIS SHAPOVALOV: Yeah. It's tough. It's not easy. It's part of the tour life.

You know anytime that you're going to go deep in a tournament, it's going to jeopardize perhaps your preparation for the next event. So you just have to take it for what it is.

For sure, it's not going to be easy. Hoping to get my feet wet a little bit today, if the rain stops, but if not, I just have to kind of go out there and play and try to use the match to get as comfortable as I can and figure out a way to at least win the first match and then give myself a little bit more time.

Q. I know the tournament in Los Cabos didn't finish the way you would have wanted, but how much of a relief was it to reach the final and find some momentum in the season?

DENIS SHAPOVALOV: Yeah, it's amazing. Like I said, I've been struggling with a lot of injuries this season. Pretty much since after Miami it's been a really tough year for me physically. So just happy to be back on court, first of all, feeling good last week, not too many aches and pains.

Obviously, like I said I ran out of gas in that final. It was a really late finish against Norrie and very physical match. So, yeah, it was a little bit expected, you know.

But I wouldn't change a thing. I mean, obviously it was a tremendous week for me. The goal was to try to play as many matches as possible, try to find my game again and just be back on court. And, yeah, I achieved all those things. So definitely a great week for me.

Obviously, like we just mentioned, it jeopardizes my prep here in Montreal a little bit, but yeah, I would take that again and again. Yeah.

Q. Hi, Denis. How do you measure your progression? Is it a matter of wins? Results? Healthiness?

DENIS SHAPOVALOV: Yeah. I mean, to be honest, you measure it mostly by results, of course, but definitely as well about how I'm feeling on court, how I feel the ball, how I'm feeling my game.

Yeah, like I just mentioned, it's been a tricky year because I have been feeling good on court. I've been feeling good in practices, but I've been struggling physically. It's been a very challenging year for my body, and there's a lot of weeks out of the year I've been trying to do my best to play through it as best as I can, knowing that it's not going to be ideal playing injured, playing hurt. But, yeah, I've been trying to push through.

It was nice to have a bit of a break after Wimbledon. To be honest, I wasn't even sure if I would be ready in time for Los Cabos and what condition I would be in physically and tennis-wise. So to have a week like last week, it shows that the game is there, now, okay, let's try to get there physically as best as possible, keep working at it.

Yeah, sure, I mean, it's obvious I've had the game -- I have the game still. It's just about putting it together.

Q. Your ranking jumped up to, I think, 43 after last week. As you kind of continue the hard court season here, like how do you kind of approach it heading into, I guess, these next few tournaments leading up to the US Open I guess with the possibility, too, that you maybe could get into that seeding for the US Open?

DENIS SHAPOVALOV: Yeah. It's not really a focus of mine, the rankings right now. Like I've been saying, the priority is to be healthy right now, to play good tennis, to, yeah, to find my game in the matches that I'm playing.

Obviously, you know, my ranking shouldn't be where it is right now. I can beat good players. I have the level.

Yeah, it's part of the sport, right, you have so many guys nowadays that are struggling with injuries. It's a grueling season. It's a grueling sport. So it's not easy. There's a lot of things we have to fight.

And, honestly, I don't think rankings mean too, too much at the moment. I feel like the sport is very close. Any guy can beat anyone on any given day, except for, okay, maybe the top guys, like Sinner and Alcaraz, but everyone else is very playable.

Yeah, I don't think I look too much into the seedings or the rankings.

Q. You had a great year here in 2017, I think. Is there still something that you can use from that year to motivate you to get some success here?

DENIS SHAPOVALOV: Just the feelings of, yeah, coming back to Montreal, seeing the fans again, playing under, yeah, their support. I think it means a lot to me.

Every time I come to Canada, and specifically to Montreal where I had my first real kind of moment on tour, my first run. So for sure, yeah, I would say I would use that.

In terms of playing and stuff like that, I think it was, yeah, almost ten years ago. So it was a long time ago, and yeah, can't really use my game from back then. I'm definitely a different player now than I was back then. Yeah.

Q. After Roland Garros, Felix said he wasn't necessarily the player he wanted to be at this point in his career, almost ten years on.

Since you both blossomed quite early, I wonder, how does your career measure up to your expectations from the get-go? Obviously there's learning that comes along the way, but just at this point in your career.

DENIS SHAPOVALOV: I think I'm very happy with my career. I think, look, when I was young, I didn't even expect to be on tour. I didn't know how good I can be.

Canada wasn't really on the radar for tennis, besides maybe Milos and Danny Nestor at the time.

So, yeah, first of all, to be where I am today, it feels surreal to begin with. I've achieved a lot in this sport.

Yeah, that being said, one of the reasons why I came back from my knee injury and wanted to keep playing was because I felt like I still have more to give to the sport, that I can achieve more. And I've proven that. All right. I won Dallas. I won two more titles. Trying to achieve the same kind of level in the big events hasn't come yet, but I'm very confident that it will come.

Like I mentioned, I have the game. Just need to get there physically, need things to click. And, yeah, I still have belief that I can have some more good runs.

Q. I have two questions. First of all, where do you feel physically? Are you 100 percent or are your injuries still kind of -- are you struggling with it a little? And, as well, you said you're a completely different player from 2017. Can you expand on that? What's different from your point of view when you play?

DENIS SHAPOVALOV: I mean, look, definitely I'm not 100 percent.

It was a lot of physical matches last week, playing at midnight, playing at 1 a.m. Courts were slow. It was tough matches. I feel my knee. I feel other parts of my body.

Long travel as well to get here. Got here past midnight yesterday. So it's not easy on the body, by any means.

So definitely not 100 percent, but it is what it is. It's part of the sport, and I'll do my best. And we're focusing on recovery the last few days, so hopefully I'll be ready.

In terms of playing-wise, yeah, definitely, I mean, it's tough to even put something on it. I mean, first of all, the sport was very different back then. Ten years ago it was much faster. It was a completely different game, right? It was first two-punch -- first two balls was very important.

Nowadays you need to be way more versatile. You need to be able to grind. You need to be able to drop shot, to play higher.

It's slowed down quite a bit. So in that sense I've become a way better returner nowadays than I was at the beginning of my year.

Yeah, grinding more, like I said. Playing quicker, playing slower. You need to just know way more in the game nowadays, because with how slow everything is, everyone is kind of playing at the same pace now.

Beforehand you had -- if you had a weapon, then you had a big difference than a lot of other guys, but nowadays, the weapons are not so visible, unless it's like a huge, huge serve or forehand.

Q. I know it's not your case today, but can you tell us the feeling when you have to wait for rain delay? Alexis Galarneau was supposed to play yesterday. His match was delayed again. Can you tell us that feeling, please?

DENIS SHAPOVALOV: Yeah. I think it's part of the sport. It's not ideal, obviously. Early in the tournaments as well, you don't want to see that for the tournament's sake or for your own sake, knowing that you might have multiple matches back to back.

I think when it's a Masters, it's easier because it's two out of three sets. So it's not a problem to play back to back. But in Grand Slams it becomes difficult.

Yeah, it just becomes long days, so you try to kind of find your quiet spot, relax as much as possible and try to get away. At least for myself, that's what I try to do, because especially the first few days, it's always hectic, a lot of people around, not much areas to kind of, yeah, get away from people. So I think it's important to try to find that.