‘Made changes to my clay court game, it will reflect in Barcelona’: Denis Shapovalov
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Denis Shapovalov will make his first appearance this season on the clay at the ongoing Barcelona Open.
The Canadian superstar will open his campaign against Frenchman, Jeremy Chardy, who took out Nikoloz Basilashvili. As per his latest interview to the ATP tour, the 22-year-old revealed that he has made some changes to his clay court game, and it will reflect from his very first match.
“I’ve improved standing further back on the returns on the clay court, on the red dirt, just to give myself more time and start the point going a bit heavier, deeper and just moving into the court after that. I feel like it’s definitely benefitted my clay-court game.”
Denis Shapovalov makes minor adjustments in his game
Shapovalov, further elaborated on how small little changes on the clay can bring a huge change to his results. To react to bad bounces on clay, you need to stay far back.
“It just gives me time for the ball to come down so I can hit it back up heavy and work myself into the point. I also feel on clay there are a lot of tough bounces and on the serve. If there’s a little bit of a [tough] bounce, then it’s pretty impossible when you’re standing close. But if you’re far back, you can still react to it.”
As we have seen on the clay, the best of the stroke makers struggle to win points consistently, owing to the slow nature of the surface. Considering the need to adapt, the Canadian further stated,
“I think it just takes time [to adjust to it]. It’s longer points, longer rallies and you really have to get used to the sliding and feeling the surface. That in itself takes longer to get used to. Usually points are pretty short, but going onto the clay, you’re expecting long points.”
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Vivek Krishnan
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