PELIWO, POSPISIL LEAD CANADIAN CHARGE
Pospisil, Peliwo bounce favourites in a good day for Canadian tennis
Record first round for Canada’s men at Rogers Cup
John Isner is difficult to beat in a tiebreaker.
But Vancouver’s Vasek Pospisil wasn’t worried Tuesday when he faced the prospect of two tiebreakers in his firstround match against Isner at the Rogers Cup men’s tennis championships.
“The time I beat him before, I won a third- set tiebreaker so I wasn’t too worried,” Pospisil said after he outlasted Isner 5- 7, 7- 6 ( 5), 7- 6 ( 4),
Pospisil said he was concerned when Isner broke him in the second game of the deciding set and raced to a 4- 1 lead.
“When you’re down 4- 1 against somebody who is one of the hardest guys to break on tour ( and) you come back and win, that’s extremely special,” said Pospisil.
Pospisil said his first match was difficult emotionally because he had little rest after winning a $ 100,000 Challenger event Sunday in Vancouver and then taking an overnight flight to Montreal. “It was tough but emotionally difficult as well ( going back to) last week, because I played two matches on Saturday, a very emotional roller- coaster match in the final on Sunday in front of friends and family,” said Pospisil. “Then I flew overnight with no sleep. So obviously, mentally, it was a couple of very draining days but amazing at the same time.”
Pospisil withdrew from the doubles Tuesday night so that he would get some extra rest before taking on Czech Radek Stepanek in the opening match on the National Bank court Wednesday at noon.
Pospisil’s win was part of a record- breaking performance as five Canadians won firstround matches for the first time in the Open era.
Eleventh- seeded Milos Raonic of Richmond Hill, Ont., continued to struggle but managed to get past Jeremy Chardy of France 6- 3, 4- 6, 7- 5; veteran Frank Dancevic of Niagara Falls outlasted qualifier Yen- Hsun Lu of Taiwan 5- 7, 7- 6, 6- 1 and Vancouver teen Filip Peliwo was leading Jarkko Nieminen 3- 6, 7- 5, 3- 1 when the Finn retired with a hamstring injury. Ottawa native Jesse Levine won his first- round match on Monday.
Isner came into the tournament with a 28- 9 record in tiebreakers this year and was 8- 0 in third- set tiebreakers over the past two years. But Pospisil reversed both trends as he served an ace on set point to take the first tiebreaker 7- 5 and then gambled to earn a minibreak at 5- 4 in the deciding tiebreaker. Pospisil went out wide to crack a forehand return of service and a surprised Isner was unable to handle the shot which landed at his feet. Pospisil then served out the match.
“He was serving wide a lot, but I didn’t want to move outside for the return because I thought he would start mixing it up,” said Pospisil. “I waited for my chance and it paid off.”
Pospisil had never previously beaten a player ranked as high as Isner, who is No. 20, and he said the win was among the top five highlights in his career.
“But beating ( Juan Ignacio) Chela here two years ago was big because it was my first ATP Tour win and I’ve had some good wins in Davis Cup, but this one is up there,” said Pospisil.
Raonic, who needs good performances over the next month to maintain his careerhigh ranking of No. 13, cruised through the first set against Chardy, but then reverted to the form which has seen him win only five matches in his last seven tournaments dating back April.
“I was happy because I won and I stuck with what I want to do,” said Raonic, who has revamped his game under new coach Ivan Ljubicic.
The idea is to be more aggressive and take advantage of opportunities to go to the net. Raonic said he’s willing to accept some short- term pain if it allows him to reach the level where he can compete with the top four players in the world.
Dancevic said his win over Lu was another positive step in his bid to regain a spot in the top 100.
“I’ve been playing well and I started playing more aggressively,” said Dancevic, adding that he measures himself by how well he’s playing. “I feel like I’m playing top- 100 tennis.”
Dancevic, who is No. 169 but has been ranked as high as No. 85, plays 15th- seeded Jerzy Janowicz of Poland on Wednesday, while Levine will face fourth- seeded Rafael Nadal in the second afternoon match at Uniprix Stadium. Janowicz advanced with a 3- 6, 6- 3, 7- 5 win over France’s Julian Benneteau.
While the Wednesday schedule will be a busy one with second- seeded Andy Murray, third- seeded David Ferrer and Nadal making their first appearances, a couple of players claimed spots in the round of 16 Tuesday.
Top- seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia closed out the evening session in the stadium with an easy 6- 2, 6- 1 winner over Florian Mayer of Germany and ninth- seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan outlasted Andreas Seppi of Italy 4- 6, 7- 5, 6- 1.
In other matches involving seeded players, 13thseeded Fabio Fognini of Italy defeated Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 1- 6, 6- 1, 6- 1; 10thseeded Tommy Haas of Germany defeated David Goffin of Belgium 7- 6, 6- 3 and Nikolai Davydenko of Russia upset 14th- seeded Gilles Simon of France 2- 6, 6- 1, 6- 1. More Rogers Cup photos at vancouversun. com/ galleries