Denis Shapovalov has been accused of being too soft following his straight-set defeat to Alex de Minaur at Queen\u2019s Club.<\/p>\n
The Canadian burst onto the ATP Tour<\/a> in 2017 after a breakthrough run at the Canadian Open, where the then 18-year-old beat Juan Martin del Potro, Rafael Nadal, and more.<\/p>\n The big-hitting left-hander was seen as a hugely exciting young talent but he hasn\u2019t really been able to deliver on his potential.<\/p>\n One Grand Slam semi-final and a highest ranking of 10 arguably make for underwhelming reading for a player of his calibre.<\/p>\n Now aged 27, Shapovalov<\/a>\u2018s window of opportunity may be passing, and in the second round at Queen\u2019s Club, De Minaur took him apart on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Wimbledon withdrawals: Carlos Alcaraz joined by former world No 5 as absentees mount<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Emma Raducanu\u2019s biggest problem at Wimbledon identified<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as\u00a0<\/span>a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n After a fairly even first set, which went 6-4 to the Australian, Shapovalov wilted on the Andy Murray Arena and lost the second 6-1.<\/p>\n The Tel Aviv-born player made a string of unenforced errors and the much more consistent De Minaur<\/a> took advantage.<\/p>\n In the space of just over a year, Shapovalov has had three separate coaches in his corner. His six-month stint with Janko Tipsarevic ended in May 2025, before Mikael Tillstrom took over until February.<\/p>\n Mirjam Bjorklund is now coaching the Canadian, who has fallen to 41st in the rankings. During his loss to De Minaur, 1987 Wimbledon champion Pat Cash offered to coaching Shapovalov.<\/p>\n However, he also had some choice words for his attitude and strategy.<\/p>\n He said on the BBC\u2019s coverage of Queen\u2019s, \u201cWe know his plan A. It\u2019s smashing serves and hitting spectacular shots but when things aren\u2019t going well, what do you do?<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got to have a plan B if you get punched in the face a few times. His plan B is more of plan A. He would be the most frustrating player\u2026 I would love to sit down with him and work with him for a bit and bring out some toughness.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you say he has all the shots, he actually doesn\u2019t have all the shots. He has big swings but he doesn\u2019t have that median shot that is good under pressure but not a complete defensive shot.<\/p>\n \u201cTennis is a game of controlled aggression. You teeter on that, sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less.\u201d<\/p>\n READ MORE: What Kim Clijsters has noticed after watching Serena Williams practice ahead of Wimbledon<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post \u2018You need a plan B\u2019 \u2013 Wimbledon legend offers to coach \u2018most frustrating\u2019 ATP star<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Denis Shapovalov has been accused of being too soft following his straight-set defeat to Alex de Minaur at Queen\u2019s Club. The Canadian burst onto the ATP Tour in 2017 after a breakthrough run at the Canadian Open, where the then 18-year-old beat Juan Martin del Potro, Rafael Nadal, and more. The big-hitting left-hander was seen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2348\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More Tennis News<\/strong><\/h2>\n