Denis Shapovalov Is Having a Wimbledon to Remember

Denis Shapovalov will try to keep his Wimbledon run going against Novak Djokovic in his men’s semifinal on Friday.Credit...Peter Nicholls/ReutersWIMBLEDON, England — As she coached him in Toronto as a child, Tessa Shapovalova told her young son not to mind the balls arcing over his head when he went to the net. Someday, she said, he would be tall enough to reach them.

“From a young age I never was a player that would sit back and wait for my opponent’s mistakes,” Denis Shapovalov said on Wednesday. “I always wanted to be the one dictating. I was always coming to the net from 10, 12 years old, getting lobbed back there, losing points.

“My mom always told me: ‘Later on, you’re going to grow,…