Canadian tennis star Denis Shapolvalov will play in the qualifying tournament at the ASB Classic on Saturday, having missed out on main draw wildcard.
The former top 10 player and 2021 Wimbledon semifinalist hasn’t played since last year’s Wimbledon because of injuries, so his ranking has dropped to 109 in the world.
He has been in Auckland for most of this week, practising with other players, including Gael Monfils, in the hope that a spot would open up for him.
When he arrived in the country, his ranking wasn’t high enough to get him into the qualifying draw. However, following a couple of withdrawals, the 24-year-old Shapovalov has made it in.
Classic tournament director Nicolas Lamperin was hoping he’d be able to give Shapovalov a main draw wildcard, but to do that he needed Gael Monfils to make it into the main draw by his own ranking, which is 74 in the world.
But there wasn’t enough withdrawals to make that happen, so Shapovalov has been drawn against Alexandre Muller from France in the first round of qualifying.
It will be the second match on grandstand court and follows the battle between New Zealand’s Isaac Becroft Alejandro Tabilo from Chile.
The third match on this court is Jack Loutit taking on Benjamin Bonzi from France and after it will be exciting American teen Alex Michelsen against France’s Gregoire Barrere.
Loutit secured his qualifying wildcard by losing in the final to KP Pannu at the Te Anau Invitational, which also doubled up as the wildcard playoff tournament.
As there was a spare qualifying wildcard, Tennis NZ and Lamperin have been able to give it to Becroft.
Becroft is the fourth highest ranked New Zealander at 860 in the world, well below Rubin Statham at 455 and Ajeet Rai at 518.
However, both Statham and Rai decided not to play in Te Anau and Tennis NZ has stayed true to its word that only players who entered the wildcard playoffs would be eligible for wildcards. Becroft won the 3rd/4th playoff in Te Anau against George Stoupe.
Often players at Shapovalov’s level wouldn’t bother to enter qualifying at the Classic and prefer to spend the week training in Melbourne ahead of the Australian Open. But after so long away, Shapovalov feels he needs matches and ranking points, so is prepared to go through the challenge of winning two matches in qualifying if need be.
It is the first time he has needed to play qualifying at a tournament since the US Open in 2017. However, if a player in the main draw pulls out by Saturday morning, Monfils would be the next direct acceptance, so Lamperin would be able to switch the wildcard from Monfils to Shapovalov.
Meanwhile, nearly all the big name players have now arrived in Auckland for the men’s Classic, which is a relief to Lamperin.
“All of them are here,” he said.
“The only two who are not here yet are Arthur Fils and Roberto Bautista Agut, because they’re still playing in Hong Kong. But apart from them, all the other ones are here.”
