Denis Shapovalov accuses ATP of sending him an 'insulting' cheque

Denis Shapovalov has spoken about how he is still unhappy with how he was treated after being disqualified at an event in Washington.

The Canadian is enduring a tricky campaign with just 17 wins in his last 40 matches, with his best performances coming in August whilst competing at the Mubadala Citi DC Open. He reached the quarter-final of the competition before bowing out in controversial style.

Shapovalov was facing Ben Shelton in the final eight in a tight affair, with the latter edging a tiebreak in the first set. Similarly, the second set headed to a tiebreak, with Shapovalov making a series of costly errors to give his opponent an advantage.

The Tel Aviv-born star threw his racket in anger before engaging in a heated exchange with a member of the crowd which saw him handed a code violation for verbal abuse before being defaulted for his protests.

Shapovalov appealed against the decision, prompting the ATP to rule in his favour and allow him to keep his ranking points from the competition. However, the 25-year-old remains unhappy with how the saga panned out for him, especially financially.

He explained: "I am not happy with the result. To me, it was wrong what happened. It was in an important moment of my season because finally when I was playing good I had a good run and then this incident happened - it killed my momentum.

"You could see in Montreal there was a lot of other focus and I was not able (to play) my best tennis and it carried on to the US Open. It stayed in my head. I was very upset.

"Even though I got the 100 points back from the decision I lost all my prize money. If you reduce the fine and the taxes they sent me a cheque for £118 ($154). It was kind of an insult to me.

"The ATP didn't admit they were wrong. You have players that did way, way worse than what I have done and there were not big punishments. I was unlucky and I am still upset that they did not admit their mistake.

"At that moment, I did not want to play tennis. But after Davis Cup, it was better." Shapovalov will be hoping to bounce back to form in the remaining months of the season, having recently been beaten in the first round of UTS Frankfurt by Ugo Humbert.