Denis Shapovalov could use Andy Murray to help him beat Rafael Nadal at Australian Open

Andy Murray practices ahead of Australian Open

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Denis Shapovalov has opened up on his new partnership with Andy Murray’s former coach. The Canadian scored one of the best wins of his career on Sunday when he beat world No 3 Alexander Zverev in straight sets to reach his first ever quarter-final at the Australian Open. With Rafael Nadal waiting in the next round, Shapovalov will be hoping to use his coach’s experience with Murray to help him out.

Andy Murray announced that he was splitting with Jamie Delgado, his long-time coach of more than five years, during the off season.

The British coach joined the Murray camp in 2016 and was with him during arguably the best season of his career, when he won a third major at Wimbledon and a second Olympic gold medal among his nine titles, and reached the world No 1 ranking for the first time.

He stuck with the 34-year-old during his years sidelined with a hip injury, but their partnership came to an end at the end of 2021 as Murray started working with German coach Jan De Witt.

It was also announced that Delgado had started working with Shapovalov, the young Canadian who had made his top 10 debut and reached a maiden Grand Slam semi-final in 2021.

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Their partnership has proven successful so far, with the world No 14 winning the ATP Cup for Team Canada alongside fellow young prospect Felix Auger-Aliassime earlier this month.

And Shapovalov now finds himself in an Australian Open quarter-final for the first time, having never made it out of the first week before.

He took down third seed Zverev 6-3 7-6(5) 6-3 on Sunday, who had been one of the favourites to win the title after his victories at the Olympics and ATP Finals last year.

And speaking after the match, the 22-year-old elaborated on his new partnership with the renowned British coach.

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“Yeah, it’s been awesome,” Shapovalov said.

“The way it came about was at the end of last year me and Misha [Mikhail Youzhny], we mutually split, we both decided it just wasn’t working out.

“Was looking for a coach, and Jamie was one of the guys that me and my team had thought about. We heard that he had split with Andy. So, you know, we just gave him a call and asked if he’d be interested to join the team and try out and see how it would work.”

The young Canadian, who knocked Murray out of Wimbledon last summer en route to his first Grand Slam semi-final, said he thought the British coach had been a great fit, adding: “Obviously it’s been, you know, really good so far. It’s been just a couple of weeks. Obviously it’s really new.

“But we’ve definitely clicked in terms of personalities and in terms of, you know, working on the court. I think we both have kind of the same vision for my game.”

And Shapovalov was also happy to have Delgado on his team for his wealth of experience gained from working with Murray, which will come in handy when the world No 14 takes on one of the 34-year-old’s biggest rivals Nadal.

“Yeah, I feel like he’s a super understanding person. Obviously he’s got so much experience and, you know, he’s been through so much with Andy,” he added.

“So he’s definitely got a lot of experience under his belt. That’s something that I really thought would be great to add to my team.”

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