Denis Shapovalov reveals negative impact ‘unfair’ Washington controversy had on him

Denis Shapovalov admits he has had a tough time in the days following the Washington controversy. He feels the whole situation was “unfair” and vows to fight on despite having his prize money and ranking points from the tournament reclaimed.

After Shapovalov threw his racket away twice in a moment of frustration, someone in the crowd said something to him that made the 25-year-old Canadian very angry and curse at the heckler in question. The situation ended with the former world number 10’s bizarre disqualification while facing three match points against Ben Shelton in their quarter-final.

Under the rule, Shapovalov would have lost his entire $53,240 prize money and 100 ranking points. However, after Shapovalov received some strong support and the rule came under some harsh criticism and scrutiny, the ATP decided to consider the Canadian’s appeal successful and award him his prize money and Washington points.

Denis Shapovalov© Getty Images Sports – Jess Rapfogel

Shaporalov: I felt extremely stressed and had difficulty sleeping.

“It’s been an interesting few days. It’s been extremely tough for me. I felt extremely stressed afterward. I couldn’t sleep well. I’m grateful that the committee decided to reinstate my points and my money. I think it was absolutely unfair what happened. I used foul language, but it wasn’t directed at anyone. I didn’t have any codes (violations) during the match. So this could have been a code for verbal obscenity or whatever you want to call it,” Shapovalov said during his pre-tournament press conference at the Montreal Masters.

While Shapovalov was given his full prize money back, he was also fined $36,400, leaving him with a profit of $17,000. And the 25-year-old now plans to appeal his fine.

“I also got a pretty big fine. So I’m going to try to fight it. I deserve some kind of fine for the bad language, but I think the amount is pretty high for something that almost nobody has heard. I’m going to do my best to discuss it again and fight it if I can. And yeah, we’ll go from there,” Shapovalov said.

After his press conference, Shapovalov also published a statement on his social media.