Denis Shapovalov has not taken lightly being fined for his default at the 2024 Citi Open, and he's promised to fight the fine, even though the ATP has already reduced his punishment.
A few days ago, Shapovalov was in Washington playing at the Citi Open, where he was one of the better-performing players. His run there ended on a brutal note as he was defaulted from his match after clashing with a spectator.
Many deemed the ruling quite harsh, as a few fellow players jumped to his defense on social media. Shapovalov himself wasn't a fan of it. However, the ATP would back the umpire in question by confirming that his actions were correct and according to the rules.
Still, the organization reduced the punishment for Shapovalov, allowing him to keep his prize money and points won, as that would have been too harsh a punishment.
He was still handed a $36,400 fine, but he's not a fan of that either. The Canadian told the media in Montreal that the whole situation was too harsh. He didn't agree with the ruling but was thankful that the organization reinstated his prize money and points won upon reviewing the incident.
"It’s it’s been an interesting couple of days. 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."
Shapovalov prides himself on being a generally fair and respectful player, so getting defaulted from a match was really difficult to process for him. He certainly isn't happy with how everything went because he's not a fan of the fine he got.
He admitted to the Montreal media that he would try to fight it, but it doesn't seem likely that he will be able to do much to reduce it. He certainly won't be able to get rid of it because code violations yield fines—that's just how the rules are set up.
"I also got a pretty hefty fine. So I’m gonna try to fight that. 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."
There isn't much time to dwell on what happened in Washington, as he's back home in Canada for the ATP Masters 1000 event in Montreal. His focus will be on that event as he hopes to continue his solid play and possibly win more points in the journey of returning to the Top 20 where he once stood.
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