Pospisil lives up to reputation as nice guy during match
Tennis star nursing bruised wrist but takes time to trade shots with media
After trading shots with Vasek Pospisil on Monday, I’m looking forward to playing in the Canadian Seniors Tennis Championships next week because I know nobody in the 70- and- over group will hit the ball as hard as Pospisil.
I was one of a handful of media members who had a chance to hit with Pospisil at the Rogers Cup as part of a promotion for the National Bank’s On the Ball program.
Pospisil lived up to his reputation as a nice guy by adjusting his play to the level of the competition, although he did crank up his big serve on request. My success rate was about the same as Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre’s when he attempted to return Milos Raonic’s boomer last week at Uniprix Stadium.
Pospisil will be making his first appearance at this year’s Rogers Cup Tuesday afternoon when he plays qualifier Yen- Hsun Lu in the first round. It will be the second meeting between the two with Pospisil winning a threesetter two weeks ago in Atlanta.
Pospisil made news this year when he reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, but he came away from the event with a bruised wrist that forced him to take a few weeks off.
“It happened in the fourth set of my match with ( Viktor) Troicki,” Pospisil said. “It bothered me at the beginning of my doubles matches later that day, but I took some ibuprofen and it was OK after the first 15 minutes.”
It’s not surprising that Pospisil was beat up coming out of Wimbledon because he had played a lot of tennis. The Vernon, B. C., native played five sets against Vincent Millot in the first round, followed by a four- setter over Fabio Fognini, a five- setter over James Ward and a five- setter against Troicki.
The Troicki match was the start of a marathon day for Pospisil, who honed his game and his French during his time at the National Training Centre in Montreal. Pospisil returned to the court two hours later as he and American Jack Sock lost a five- set doubles match to Jamie Murray and John Peers.
It was no surprise that Pospisil had little left for his quarter- final against Andy Murray, but the Canadian went down fighting, 6- 4, 7- 5, 6- 4.
“I went to Prague for treatment after that and I didn’t do anything for 10 days,” said Pospisil, who joined Raonic on the sidelines for Canada’s Davis Cup quarter- final in Belgium.
Pospisil returned to action in Atlanta and played last week in Washington. The wrist wasn’t 100 per cent for either event, but he said he’s feeling good going into the Rogers Cup. Pospisil reached the semifinals here two years ago and is hoping to match or better that performance. He faces a potential roadblock in the second round when he faces hard- serving John Isner.
Isner beat Pospisil 6- 4, 7- 6 last week in Washington, but the Canadian has a 2- 2 lifetime record against the American and launched his run to the semis here in 2013 with a three- set win over Isner in the first round.
Pospisil’s greatest success came last year when he and Sock won the Wimbledon doubles title. Pospisil is No. 14 in the ATP doubles rankings, but he’s not playing doubles here — Sock is partnered with Czech Tomas Berdych — and said his emphasis is on singles.
“I use doubles to help my singles game, but singles come first,” Pospisil said.
Pospisil skipped the doubles so he could focus on singles and to guarantee he would be available for the weekend qualifying event for next week’s ATP Masters event in Cincinnati.
NOTE: The On the Ball program collects used tennis balls for schools, which use them to cushion the noise from chair and desk legs. The program has collected more than 1.3 million balls since its inception.