A BORG COLLECTIVE
With a second personality that is part John McEnroe and part Bjorn Borg, Canadian star shows that anything might be Pospisil.
It’s Vasek Pospisil as you’ve never seen him before — with abundant blond curls and ’stache, for starters, kind of a cross between disco lounge lizard and 1970s porn star.
Actually, as Canada’s No. 2 men’s tennis player discloses, a cross between John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg: John Borg. Alter ego. Who knew? “John Borg is the man.” The trippy character who has been hiding beneath the all-Canadian tall-boy exterior, summoned to life as a guitar-playing dandy — there he was outside the All-England Tennis club at Wimbledon last summer, entertaining fans in the queue (“They didn’t have a clue who I was”) — is now starring in Pospisil’s new YouTube video concoction: BOUNCE.
Un-reality TV, in that particular exposition. “First time John Borg has come out in the open,” Pospisil told the Star during a fly-through of the newsroom. He out-ed himself, so to speak, with the wig (Borg), the signature headband (McEnroe) and the egotistical personality (McEnroe again). “Not that I’m saying McEnroe has an ego.” Not that he ain’t saying it.
What started out as a lark, with Pospisil’s older brother Tom shooting video of his sibling on tour, has morphed into a quasi-documentary venture the player hopes will become a YouTube thing, seized upon by his 59,000 Twitter followers and sprouting virally as a social media reality TV-ish hit. The guitar-strumming at least is genuine. “I have a passion for music.” He sings some too.
Caricaturing aside, Pospisil’s intent is to bring the public inside the life of a tennis pro. “It’ll have tons of segments behind the scenes — the highs, the lows. Get my name out there a bit, show people what it’s really like. I’ve always considered myself a private person, quite reserved, but these videos aren’t going to be reserved. You’re going to see the real me.”
Well, the real he has been a generally cheerful individual, slogging it out on the men’s tour, rising to No. 25 in the rankings a couple of years ago, top 30 three years in a row, only the second male from the colony to make it inside the final eight at Wimbledon in the open era — losing in the 2015 quarters to Andy Murray — and, with American partner Jack Sock, claiming a Wimbledon title in doubles off the legendary duo of Bob and Mike Bryan the year before.
Yet still, for all that, he is the alsoran of Canadian tennis in the Milos Raonic era, although Pospisil brings to the game a quality that Raonic is sorely lacking — personality. Where Raonic is chronically grim and the embodiment of his robotically lethal serve, Pospisil is emotional and expressive, often playful with the crowd and occasionally verbally combative with the opposition.
The two Canadians — each groomed in tennis by fathers who came to this country as immigrants in search of a better life — are as different as night and day, apart from lankiness, Pospisil at six-foot-four to Raonic’s six-foot-five. Nor do they have much to do with one another outside of Davis Cup play. “I wouldn’t call it a friendship. But we get along well enough. It’s tough because this is an individual sport. He has his team around him, I have my team around me.”
Tennis is obviously not a team game, nor anywhere near as glamorous as many might think, endlessly on the road, traipsing from one city to another; making a living. “All the men generally get along well in the locker room. I’ve heard the women’s tour can be catty. But you don’t have a true friend. You might have dinner with another player but you always feel they want what you want, you’re going after the same thing. That’s why you’ll never open up completely or make a real friend.”
The 26-year-old native of Vernon, B.C., has been on the ATP circuit for five years. And make no mistake, tennis has been very, very good to him, with career earnings of nearly $4.5 million. In some ways, they’re like the court version of surfer dudes, chasing the waves — tournaments, Grand Slams — across the globe.
Pospisil laughs at the comparison. “Our lifestyle is quite different from a surfer dude. There’s a lot of hard work. I go to cities and I don’t get to see anything other than tennis courts and my hotel room. It’s a very cut-throat profession. That’s why I think this YouTube channel will work — showing the other side of the sport too.’’
Recently, Pospisil was part of the Canadian team that lost the Davis Cup quarter-finals — in memorable fashion — to Great Britain in Ottawa. Though hindered by tendinitis in his left knee, and by quad and back problems, Pospisil did his yeoman part, taking an epic five-set match over Dan Evans to extend the World Group first-round tie, and persevering in a four-set doubles loss on the same day. Then he watched as Canada dropped the deciding match on a disqualification after teenager Denis Shapovalov, the reigning Wimbledon junior champion from Richmond Hill, whacked a ball, in frustration if unintentionally, square at the chair umpire’s eye.
Pospisil may have had the best viewing seat in the house for that bizarre episode.
“I was right behind the chair. Very shocking situation. The first thing that came to mind was, ‘Oh my goodness, I really hope he doesn’t lose an eye.’ ” He didn’t, though it immediately swelled up and Shapovalov was subsequently fined $7,000.
“Just such an unfortunate mistake,” Psopisil says. “We all make mistakes, unfortunately that one was a real unpleasant one to see.
“Denis was really giving it his best, down two sets and then going down a break in the third. I think he handled it well afterwards. He was feeling really down and ashamed so we were trying to give him support. He’s young though and this will be a good learning experience for him. But definitely a pity, not how you want to go out as a team.’’
On the personal front, Pospisil is doubling down on his singles play following an inconsistent 2016 season — 10-23 in singles matches, losing a heartbreaker with Daniel Nestor that would have guaranteed the duo a silver or gold medal at the Rio Olympics — keen to elevate himself from a current ranking of 128th, anxious to amass enough points over the next month to avoid qualifiers for the French Open and Wimbledon after that. Little went right last year, including a doubles break-up with Sock (he didn’t want to play Grand Slams anymore) and what Pospisil describes vaguely as instability within his own team. “I went through a tough time overall, losing confidence in the process and then doubting everything. A complicated year where a lot of things . . . dissolved. I had a few injuries but that wasn’t the main thing.”
To shake things up, Pospisil hired a new coach in November, the Australian Mark Woodforde, dropping long-time coach Fred Fontang. “He’ll bring that element I need, aggressiveness, coming into the net, using my weapons more to my advantage. I don’t feel I utilize my net play as well as I could.”
And just maybe he’ll introduce John Borg to the competition.
“He’s never been in the locker room before.”