MONTREAL \u2014 Denis Shapovalov insists there\u2019s nothing wrong with his tennis. It\u2019s his body, rather, that\u2019s been holding him back.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a tricky year because I have been feeling good on court,\u201d Shapovalov said Monday in Montreal. \u201cI\u2019ve been feeling good in practices, but I\u2019ve been struggling physically. It\u2019s been a very challenging year for my body.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of weeks out of the year that I have been trying to do my best to play through it as best as I can, knowing that it\u2019s not going to be ideal playing injured or playing hurt. I\u2019ve been trying to push through.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite his injury struggles, the 27-year-old from Richmond Hill, Ont., arrived in Montreal for the National Bank Open fresh off Saturday\u2019s final in an ATP 250 hard-court event in Los Cabos, Mexico.<\/p>\n
The Canadian won four consecutive matches before losing in straight sets to France\u2019s Arthur Gea in the championship match. Shapovalov fell a win short of defending the Los Cabos crown he\u2019d earned in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was definitely a great week in Los Cabos,\u201d Shapovalov said. \u201cI ran out a little bit of energy there at the end. I played a lot of great matches coming back from an injury. It\u2019s never easy. I definitely couldn\u2019t have asked for more from myself for a week like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shapovalov has endured a frustrating 2026 season, compiling a 13-15 record.<\/p>\n
After fracturing a rib at the Queen\u2019s Club Championships grass court tournament, Shapovalov retired from his opening-round Wimbledon match June 29 against Pablo Carreno Busta because of a shoulder injury. He didn\u2019t play again until Los Cabos.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been struggling with a lot of injuries this season, pretty much since after Miami,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a really tough year for me physically, so I\u2019m just happy to be back on court.\u201d<\/p>\n
His expectations entering last week\u2019s tournament in Mexico were modest.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a tremendous week for me,\u201d he said. \u201cThe goal was to try to play as many matches as possible. I tried to find my game again and just be back on court. I achieved all those things, so definitely a great week for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The deep run, however, came at a cost.<\/p>\n
Shapovalov arrived in Montreal early Monday morning feeling the effects of a demanding week that featured a handful of late-night finishes on the slow Mexican hard courts.<\/p>\n
Recurring rain at IGA Stadium also threatened to limit his preparation ahead of his first-round match Tuesday against American Zachary Svajda.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tough,\u201d said Shapovalov. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy. It is part of the tour life. Any time that you are going to go deep in tournaments, it\u2019s going to jeopardize, perhaps, your preparation for the next event. You just have to take it for what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shapovalov\u2019s runner-up finish in Los Cabos lifted him 25 places in the ATP rankings to No. 43. He said improving his ranking was secondary to regaining full health.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe priority is to be healthy right now, to play good tennis and to find my game in the matches that I am playing,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously, my ranking shouldn\u2019t be where it is right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can beat good players. I have the level. It\u2019s just part of the sport. You have so many guys nowadays that are struggling with injuries. It\u2019s a grueling season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Montreal\u2019s tournament has been challenging for Shapovalov. Since a breakthrough semifinal appearance in 2017, he\u2019s managed just one win in Montreal after a second-round exit in 2019 and first-round defeats in both 2022 and 2024.<\/p>\n
Still, returning to the city where his career first captured the attention of Canadian tennis fans remained meaningful to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt 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,\u201d Shapovalov said.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 3, 2026.<\/p>\n
Jordan Stoopler, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL \u2014 Denis Shapovalov insists there\u2019s nothing wrong with his tennis. It\u2019s his body, rather, that\u2019s been holding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":844977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-844976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}