“Denis is not fully doing what he needs to do in order to be a top player” – Youzhny on Shapovalov
Former world No 8 Mikhail Youzhny speaks exclusively to Tennis Majors on his partnership with Denis Shapovalov, the hardships of playing against Roger Federer and why he isn’t surprised with the results of Novak Djokovic
Mikhail Youzhny, ATP Finals 2019 – © Kommersant/SIPA
Known for his extraordinary feel at the net, eye-catching style of play and his sometimes explosive character, Mikhail Youzhny made for must-watch TV in his time on the tour. The 41-year-old born in Moscow won 10 ATP titles in his career and progressed to the US Open semi-finals twice (2006, 2010), amassing 31 top 10 wins on his way to the career-high ranking of No 8.
Speaking exclusively to Tennis Majors, Youzhny spoke on the nature of his relationship with Cristian Garin, why his collaboration with Shapovalov ended, as well as facing the Big 3 during his playing days. Furthermore, Youzhny commented on the extraordinary 2023 season by Novak Djokovic and his lasting legacy in tennis, the Serb’s biggest challengers, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, as well as his famous viral video from 2008.
At the moment, Youzhny is working full-time with a Russian player who just started playing at the ITF Futures level. He is a family friend, as Mikhail knows his father very well.
“He doesn’t have an ATP point yet, so it’s a different challenge. If we get to the Grand Slam qualifiers, it’s going to be a big win for us already, since we started almost from zero,” Youzhny told Tennis Majors. On social media, there were photos of Youzhny on the court with the former world No 17 Cristian Garin, who now stands at No 82 in the ATP rankings.
“Cristian asked me to work with him, but I don’t have time now. I told him that we could practice together a little bit and perhaps be at a few tournaments, but I am not sure”.
From the Winston-Salem Open in 2019 until the end of 2021, Youzhny was the coach of Denis Shapovalov. During that time, the left-hander from Canada made the Wimbledon semi-finals (2021) and achieved a career-high ranking of No 10.
“It was an incredible experience for me. I was lucky – only one year after my playing career was over, I got the chance to work with a great, young player. He had a big potential and we started really well. During the pandemic, we spent three months practicing together in Bradenton. When I came to the team, Denis’s mother helped me a lot – she explained things about his tennis, personality, what he likes and doesn’t like, so that I don’t make some stupid mistakes because I don’t have enough information. The results were great”.
The split was a mutual decision, but if I have to sum up the reasons, they come down to tournament choices and practice choices.
Mikhail Youzhny on the split from Deni Shapovalov
It seemed that Youzhny found the keys to unlock Shapovalov’s vast potential by making him hit more drives with his backhand and instilling confidence and more consistency in his pupil’s game. But…
“After the Wimbledon semi-finals, we disagreed on some scheduling decisions – I thought that we should stick with the plan we agreed on… I started to feel that we lost the connection a little bit, so we ended our collaboration at the end of that year. The split was a mutual decision, but if I have to sum up the reasons, they come down to tournament choices and practice choices. I started to feel more like a sparring partner than a coach”.
The next year, following his loss to Alex De Minaur (7-5, 7-6), Shapovalov called Youzhny to rejoin the team.
“I love to watch tennis now – when I used to play, I never watched it, but now I enjoy it. I watched that match and Denis called me to see my opinion about his game. He asked me to come to the United States, and I told him that I can come for the US Open. We practiced together, he told me more about his year and the problems he was having off the court. It was not easy for him to play. I was asked to be his main coach, to travel for maybe 20 weeks per year, and it sounded like a challenge I would want to take up.”
“We spoke a lot in New York, then we had numerous phone conversations afterwards, but my feeling was that nothing changed. I felt like I can’t bring him the change he needed – he is listening, but he is not fully doing what he needs to do in order to be a top player. Two or three years ago, he was one of the guys who could consistently be in the top 10, but for that to happen, he needed to change a few things outside tennis.”
“He must be healthy 100 percent, first and foremost, and physically better. Main thing – he has to try to put tennis as his priority. It is his priority for most of the time, but in my opinion, he made some wrong decisions where he didn’t make tennis as the priority”.
“For me – and not just me, but for thousands of players – it was really tough to play Federer” – Youzhny
During his playing career, Youzhny had the opportunity to play the Big 3 – Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic – several times. For him, the toughest opponent was Federer – head-to-head being 17-0. Misha found more success against Djokovic (3-7) and Nadal (4-13).
“Rafa and Novak were younger than me, so in the beginning it was a bit easier for me to play them. The first matches were really close. As time went on, they improved a lot and it became harder to play them”, said The Colonel, as his fans nicknamed him, before adding: “But for me – and not just me, but for thousands of players – it was really tough to play Roger. We played a lot of times on grass… To be honest, out of all 17 matches, maybe twice, I had a chance to beat him. It’s simple – we played the same style of tennis, but he did everything better than me: his serve was better, my slice didn’t work against him…”
“Maybe only our backhand were equal, but I didn’t have an advantage anywhere. It was very tough for me to find a way tactically. You remember Guillermo Canas has beaten him twice in a row (Indian Wells and Miami) – Canas had a chance because he played a brand of tennis that doesn’t suit Roger when he’s having a bad day”.
There was another thing too – the mental approach.
“With Rafa and Novak, it was easier to play mentally, because I’ve beaten them in the past. With Roger, it got harder with every match. I started to put more pressure on myself because I really wanted to beat him badly – even before the start, it wasn’t a normal match for me, so that emotion lowered my chance to win. From his side, he didn’t want to lose to a guy he beat a ton of times before…”
Federer has since retired, and Nadal is now looking to make a long-awaited comeback in Brisbane starting 31st December after having missed almost the whole of the 2023 season due to injuries.
“Who could have imagined Rafa winning the Australian Open and Roland-Garros in 2022? Nobody knows how it will turn out, Rafa himself doesn’t. Maybe he stops after the Australian Open, but it is plausible he wins Roland-Garros one more time. That’s why it’s fascinating to follow”.
To be honest, I can’t fully comprehend how it’s even possible to be this motivated when he has already won everything..
Youzhny on Novak Djokovic
As far as Djokovic goes, he is still at the top of his game, winning three majors in 2023 and finishing as year-end No 1for the eighth time.
“If you told me five years ago what Djokovic’s 2023 would look like, then I would have been surprised. Watching him year by year, we see how he’s changing, so his results don’t surprise me. It’s important that he is still fit, but one thing every player should look up to is his motivation to play tennis. To be honest, I can’t fully comprehend how it’s even possible to be this motivated when he has already won everything – he doesn’t just play tennis, he still lives tennis, and manages to balance it with his family life.”
“Warmup, practice, food, recovery, fighting spirit – he doesn’t relax in any department, that’s how he gives himself a chance to still be at the top of his ability. Also, now he is much stronger mentally. Novak still has some goals, for me it’s interesting to watch him, to learn something, because I think he challenges everyone to do better. The Big 3 made each other better and pushed tennis and other players to a higher level along the way, and now Djokovic is doing that by himself”.
Asked what is it about Djokovic’s game that impresses him the most, Youzhny answered:
“He really knows his body and knows how to use the energy during the match. Tennis-wise, he continued to improve. Working with Ivanisevic, he started going more to the net – in Bercy in 2021, he went to the net so many times against Medvedev, which changed the course of the match. He wasn’t able to make such a switch in the past.”
“The most important thing, though, is that he knows how to play the big tournaments and knows how to be in the best shape when he needs to. For years, people have been saying that ’Oh, it’s Novak’s last year at the top’, but he still keeps winning.”
Two young challengers have proven to be Djokovic’s most difficult opponents in 2023. Jannik Sinner has beaten the Serb twice – in the round-robin in Turin (although Djokovic won the finals there) and in the Davis Cup in Malaga – while Carlos Alcaraz prevented Djokovic from claiming his eighth Wimbledon title.
“I don’t like to make predictions, but I know it’s going to be a very interesting year. Sinner made a huge leap near the end of 2023, I don’t think many people thought he could play this well consistently at this stage of his career. He started working with Darren Cahill, who knows what it takes to get to the top, because he worked with No 1 players in the world (Lleyton Hewitt, Andre Agassi, Simona Halep).”
“Carlos Alcaraz also has a strong, complete team of people around him, with Juan Carlos Ferrero at the helm. Alcaraz listens to his team and follows their advice. It’s hard to predict which one of those two will have a better career, because there are many intangibles in tennis over the course of a career – family issues, injuries, bad luck on an important day…”
People who follow tennis closely are wondering what are the next steps in development for both Sinner and Alcaraz, but Youzhny doesn’t want to go there as he doesn’t have an insider’s perspective.
“For all of these top players, it’s about adjusting the details. You really need to be on the inside to know what exactly needs to be improved, I hated it when people say things just for the sake of saying them – for example, ’He needs to go more to the net and he will have better results’. It’s a lot more complex than that. For instance, people are saying that Daniil Medvedev needs to stand closer to the baseline on the return. Ask him!! He can stand closer, but if he’s not feeling comfortable there, it’s the wrong decision already”.
The ATP Tour has a lot of depth currently and Youzhny thinks that a lot of players can make a breakthrough.
“Medvedev already has a lot of experience. With Holger Rune, it’s going to be interesting to see how his co-operation with Boris Becker turns out, what will he change. Andrey Rublev could make a step forward, Casper Ruud could make a comeback. We don’t know what’s going on with Felix Auger-Aliassime – he had a bad year, but he is a great player. (Taylor) Fritz, (Hubert) Hurkacz, (Frances) Tiafoe, (Denis) Shapovalov also, I am forgetting someone surely, because there are many very good players”.
A lot of people who don’t even follow tennis know the face of Mikhail Youzhny. How come?? We would have to go back to Miami in 2008 and his famous match versus Nicolas Almagro. Annoyed with himself for losing a point, Misha hit his head strongly with the racket three times, drawing blood.
“I’ve seen that video a 100 times, of course, people show it to me all the time (laughing). What many people don’t know is that I was very nervous from the start of that match. I don’t know why, but I was crazy that day. I was 4-0 up in the first set, then I got broken and I threw my racquet from the baseline to the chair. Following the first point of the next game, I got a code violation because I threw the ball outside the stadium.”
“Too many emotions, obviously, but it was a good lesson. And I won the match in the end!! I went overboard by hitting my head with the racket, but I calmed down and I won seven consecutive points afterwards. When I saw the blood – which was bad luck – I started to be quieter. That moment turned the match around, my mentality changed at that moment.”
