London

Arriving at the US Open last month, Nick Kyrgios found his locker stationed next to that of Denis Shapovalov. As a man with a sense of irony, he might have grinned at the coincidence.

In 2014, Kyrgios had come to New York as tennis’s brightest young thing. At 19, he was fresh from an apparently career-making win over Rafael Nadal, and blessed with a talent that promised to make him the youngest slam champion since Novak Djokovic.

Unfortunately, Kyrgios has spent much of the past three years telling us that he lacks the discipline to train. Meanwhile, almost everything we said about Kyrgios in 2014 - including the eye-catching win over Nadal - would now apply to 18-year-old Shapovalov, the latest prodigy of the tennis court.

“Can someone pinch me?” said the Canadian as his storybook 2017 continued with an invite to the inaugural Laver Cup last week.

Dream come true

“To have John McEnroe as captain, to be in the same event as Roger and Rafa, it’s a dream come true. Rod Laver is a legend,” added Shapovalov, “but obviously when I was growing up, on our TV was Roger and Rafa, so those were my main idols. It’s ridiculous how they’ve managed to keep their level up and just play great tennis, but I guess that’s why they’re champions.

“The first impression you get is, ‘Oh my God, it’s Roger,’ but then you meet him and he’s just like anyone else. He talks so great about my tennis, he thinks I have good potential. For me, that’s inspiring, being a junior or a kid, growing up watching him, having your idol talk that way about you, it’s the best feeling in the world.”

Shapovalov could not quite bring a point home for the World team last week, but then he was up against world No. 4 Alexander Zverev, another meteor who turned 20 only in April. Despite the obvious gap in experience and development, Shapovalov still took the contest to two tiebreaks before going down to an honourable 7-6, 7-6 defeat. “Hopefully, one day we can have a rivalry like Roger and Rafa,” said Zverev afterwards.

The Laver Cup’s organisers could not have predicted the injury epidemic that ruled out Djokovic, Andy Murray and half a dozen other heavyweights. Yet this feels like it has worked in their favour, for the ‘NextGen’ have turned up in numbers, bringing energy and exuberance. During doubles match, Shapovalov and 19-year-old Frances Tiafoe performed elaborate mimes .

Shapovalov comes across differently in the interview room, where he is bashful to the point of geekiness, and humble for a man whose stock is soaring.

“I still get shocked when I’m on the streets and people start shouting my name, and recognising me,” he says. “I say, ‘You want a picture of me? Are you sure?’”

And what about the screaming young women, who feel like a throwback to 1970s Borgmania? He looks modestly at the floor. “Yeah, there are girls. I don’t talk to too many though.”

But there are no guarantees for junior slam champions: just ask Britain’s own Oli Golding, who won in New York in 2011 and is only just returning to tennis after a three-year break.

In February, Shapovalov suffered a setback of his own. Playing a Davis Cup tie against Great Britain in Ottawa, he swatted away a loose ball in anger, only for it to land smack on the left eye of chair umpire Arnaud Gabas, who suffered a broken orbital bone.

How would this embarrassment affect him? Positively, it turned out, by forcing him to control his emotions.

As Mats Wilander has predicted, nothing but serious injury will obstruct this earnest young man’s pursuit of greatness.

—The Telegraph Group Limited, London 2017