"My mother knew my game better, so why wasn't she taken seriously?" - Denis Shapovalov on his mother's struggles

Canadian tennis player Denis Shapovalov recently shared an anecdote of how his mother was not taken seriously during his formative years of training.

Shapovalov said he took up the sport only because of his mother and coach Tessa Shapovalova, who used to be a player herself. His first tennis lessons began when he was five, at a country club in Richmond Hill, Toronto, where his mother worked as a coach.

The World No. 30 said his mother had an impeccable eye for tennis. Writing for The Players Tribune on the occasion of Women's History Month and International Women's Day, Shapovalov opened up on how his mother was not taken seriously by some coaches at a Canadian Tennis Federation national camp.

"When I was 10, the Canadian tennis federation invited me to a national training program. Unfortunately, my mom and I felt that the coaches there didn’t do the right kind of work. They didn’t know my game.

"Whenever she told them something about the way I played, they just ignored her. They wouldn’t take her advice whatsoever. It was completely pointless. After a couple of months, my results were obviously getting worse, and we decided that we just had to leave," he said.

Denis Shapovalov went on to state:

"Looking back at that now really sucks. She was a former Soviet national team player. She had won national championships. She had clearly trained up a pretty talented player, and she knew my game better than anyone. So why did nobody listen to her? Why wasn’t she taken seriously? Was it because she was a woman?"

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Without my mother, my chances of turning pro would have been zero: Denis Shapovalov

Denis Shapovalov at the 2023 Australian Open. (PC: Getty Images)

Denis Shapovalov, who spoke extensively on eliminating the gender gap in the sport, credited his mother for his ascendancy in tennis. He said his chances of turning pro would have been next to nothing if she hadn't made the sacrifices she had made.

Shapovalov also said his mother dedicated her adult life to training him for the bigger challenges that lay ahead of him in the sport.

"When my mom was playing in the Soviet Union, she felt that she didn’t have the opportunity to fulfill her potential because of money. So she dedicated her adult life to giving me that chance. When I left the Canadian programme, she rented a warehouse and put two courts in it. This was my new academy," he said.

Denis Shapovalov knew that it was a risky venture that his mother had stepped into, but credited her cleverness in investing her time and money into his career.

"It was super risky for her financially, but she wanted to build a place where I could develop my game. She invited the best players she knew in the area and began training us. All the money that the academy made went to pay for my expenses. That is my mom. She is so strong, so clever, so caring. Without her, my chance of turning pro would have been zero," he added.