Pospisil advances after injured opponent retires
Vasek Pospisil was hoping for a breakthrough.
Pospisil, of Vancouver, was halfway there on Tuesday night at the Rogers Cup in Toronto when his opponent, Jeremy Chardy, took care of the guesswork, propelling yet another Canadian through to the second round on home soil.
Pospisil fought hard to come out on top in an opening-set tiebreak on Centre Court at the Aviva Centre, then watched as the higher-ranked Chardy stayed seated before ultimately retiring from the match with an apparent right foot injury.
With the win — which goes in the books as 7-6(3) (ret.) — the 26-yearold moves on via walkover and will next face another Frenchman in 10th seed Gael Monfils.
Pospisil is the fifth of a possible six Canadian singles competitors to move into the second round, pumping plenty of surprising mid-week intrigue into an event that surely needed it, having lost numerous top-ranked players to pre-tournament withdrawals.
“Thank you guys for coming out, sorry it was just one set,” Pospisil said on the court moments after the premature ending.
Pospisil had talked about wanting to work on maximizing his strengths — his serve and forehand — and while it wasn’t the full test he sought, the Canadian, who has struggled this season, showed indications of improvement in what was a reasonably clean 39 minutes, nine seconds of tennis.
After double-faulting to open the match and immediately losing his serve to go down 0-1, the world No. 101 responded the next game for a break of his own to nullify his opponent’s early advantage.
The Canadian showed some depth with a beautiful backhand volley down the line to close out the fifth game and, after showing signs of frustration by throwing his racket in the air after flubbing a service return to lose a 30-0 advantage in the eighth game, he settled in, finishing with 14 winners to Chardy’s seven, while also out-acing him 6-3 in the shortened affair.
While players had a difficult time keeping the ball inside the lines, a virtual point of contention was one that did land in. With Pospisil up 6-2 in the tiebreak, Chardy challenged a call that his return had sailed long and the review showed he was correct by about half a foot.
Leading 6-3, Pospisil seared a forehand winner and a fuming Chardy sat down and did not get back out of his seat until the match had been called following a medical timeout at the break.
Canadian Daniel Nestor was in the stands for the early evening showcasematchandbeginshisdoubles journey on Thursday, while top Canadian Milos Raonic and young stud Denis Shapovalov headline a busy Wednesday for homegrown players. Toronto natives Peter Polansky and Steven Diez are set to resume their tournaments, while North Vancouver’s Philip Bester and Toronto’s Adil Shamasdin also advanced in doubles on Tuesday.