Denis Shapovalov will not play again until the 2025 French Open at the earliest after withdrawing from the 2025 Geneva Open.
Although clay has never been Shapovalov's strongest surface, the Canadian had a few great tournaments before this year's swing on the dirt, thrilling fans with some of his best tennis in recent years.
Shapovalov's most notable moment was winning a maiden ATP 500 title at the 2025 Dallas Open. He defeated Miomir Kecmanovic, Taylor Fritz, Tomas Machac, Tommy Paul, and Casper Ruud to triumph in Texas.
All runs to ATP 500 titles are impressive, but Shapovalov's was particularly excellent since he played several excellent players to win. Overcoming the No. 1 seed and world No. 4 Fritz at his home tournament deserves immense credit.
The 2021 Wimbledon semifinalist backed that up by reaching the 2025 Mexican Open semifinal. He was on a run of eight consecutive victories before being beaten by Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in Mexico.
Shapovalov's form dipped during the US hard-court swing in March. He won a single match each at the 2025 Indian Wells Open and 2025 Miami Open, halting the momentum built in the previous tournaments.
Those results have gotten worse on clay. The 26-year-old has only managed one win in appearances at the Monte-Carlo Masters, Munich Open, Madrid Open, and Italian Open. That came against Kei Nishikori in Madrid.
Shapovalov's most recent setback was a 3-6, 4-6 loss to Vilius Gaubas in Rome. Despite not having much form heading into the match, he played particularly poorly in that contest and made life easy for Gaubas.
Despite the bad performance, Shapovalov did not seem to have any physical issues in that match. If the Canadian did, he hid them well and gave nothing away for Gaubas, fans, or commentators to notice.
Shapovalov gave no official reason for withdrawing from the 2025 Geneva Open. It may be as simple as the Dallas Open champion wanting additional rest before appearing at the 2025 French Open at Roland Garros.
However, an injury issue cannot be ruled out at this point. Usually, players are more likely to play the week before a Grand Slam when they are lacking match wins, which Shapovalov is after registering a 1-4 win/loss record on clay so far this year.
In contrast to Shapovalov, Novak Djokovic altered his schedule by committing to playing in Geneva. The 24-time Grand Slam champion also did this in 2024 to gain momentum, reaching the semifinal.
Djokovic will appear at the Geneva Open and all future tournaments without Andy Murray after the pair announced their split. Towards the end of last year, the three-time Grand Slam champion was announced as his former rival's coach.
Their partnership had a promising start when Djokovic reached the semifinal at the 2025 Australian Open, beating Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinal. Unfortunately, the ten-time champion in Melbourne retired against Alexander Zverev with an injury.
Djokovic then made the 2025 Miami Open final, but he lost his opening two matches of the clay-court swing in Monte-Carlo and Madrid. The tennis legend withdrew from the Italian Open before splitting with Murray.
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