Denis Shapovalov says changes should be made to certain rules on the Tour after his disqualification from the Citi Open left him feeling stressed and unable to sleep.
The former top 20 player was defaulted from his quarter-final match against Ben Shelton for allegedly shouting at a spectator. A claim the Canadian disputes by arguing that he used foul language on the court but it was not directed at anybody. He was losing the match 6-7(5), 6-6(3-6), when he threw his racket to the court and began shouting. Prompting Shapovalov to be issued with a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct by the umpire who then called the tournament supervisor. It was decided he would be defaulted from the match.
According to the rule book, such disqualifications result in a player automatically losing the ranking points and prize money earned at that tournament. However, Shapovalov appealed against that verdict and successfully won the right to keep the money and points.
“It’s it’s been an interesting couple of days,” Shapovalov told reporters in Montreal on Monday.
“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.”
Despite winning his appeal, the 25-year-old has been fined $36,400 for his code violation. This works out as roughly a third of what he earned whilst playing at the Citi Open. A decision he intends to launch another appeal against.
“I also got a pretty hefty fine. So I’m gonna try to fight that,” he said.
“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.”
Vasek Pospisil, who is playing doubles with Shapovalov in Montreal this week, says there needs to be changes to the rules following the disqualification of his compatriot. Earlier this year Andrey Rublev was disqualified from the Dubai Tennis Championships after a Russian-speaking official appeared to accused him of using an obscenity. Like Shapovalov, he later won an appeal to retain his points and prize money but was still fined.
“One thing’s for sure is that rules need to change,” Shapovalov commented.
“To have something like this happen from barely anything when there’s maybe 40, 50, if not more examples of players and moments that have gone way worse and there was no penalization or way minor penalization. There’s no consistency in the rules.
“So there needs to be something in place that protects the players.”
After successfully winning his appeal, Shapovalov has risen 33 places up the rankings this week to 106th in the world.
