Denis Shapovalov admits he didn’t have an easy last couple of days after the Washington controversy as he believes the entire situation was “unfair” and vows to fight further despite having his prize money and ranking points from the tournament reinstated.
After Shapovalov threw his racket twice in a moment of frustration, someone from the crowd told him something that left the 25-year-old Canadian very annoyed and made him curse out the heckler in question. The situation ended with former world No. 10 being bizarrely disqualified while facing three match points versus Ben Shelton in their quarterfinal match.
By the rule, Shapovalov was set to lose his entire $53,240 prize money and 100 ranking points. But after Shapovalov received some strong support and the rule got some pretty harsh criticism and scrutiny, the ATP decided to rule the Canadian’s appeal as successful and let him have his Washington prize money and points.
Shaporalov: I felt extremely stressed, had a hard time sleeping.
“It’s it’s been an interesting couple of days. It was extremely tough on me. I felt extremely stressed afterward. I was having a tough time sleeping. I’m thankful that the committee decided to reinstate my points and my money. I think it was definitely unfair what happened. I use foul language but it wasn’t directed towards anybody. I had no codes (violations) during the match at all. So this could have easily just been a code for verbal verbal obscenity or whatever you want to call it,” Shapovalov said in his pre-tournament press conference at the Montreal Masters.
While Shapovalov got his entire prize money back, he was also slapped with a $36,400 fine – which leaves him with a profit of $17k. And the 25-year-old now plans to appeal his fine.
“I also got a pretty hefty fine. So I’m gonna try to fight that. I deserve some kind of fine for the foul language, but I think the amount is pretty hefty for something that barely anybody heard. I’m going to try my best to again try to discuss it and fight it if I can. And, yeah, we go from there,” Shapovalov said.
After his presser, Shapovalov also issued a statement on his social media.
— Denis Shapovalov (@denis_shapo) August 6, 2024
Meanwhile, Shapovalov starts his Montreal campaign against a qualifier.