Vasek Pospisil of Canada, right, and Jack Sock of the U.S hold their trophies after defeating Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan of the U.S in the men's doubles final at Wimbledon on Saturday.

Vasek Pospisil of Canada, right, and Jack Sock of the U.S hold their trophies after defeating Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan of the U.S in the men's doubles final at Wimbledon on Saturday.
Photo Credit: AP Photo / Sang Tan

Canadians make tennis history

It will rank as the greatest day in Canadian tennis history–at least for now.

Three Canadians were in action on Wimbledon’s final Saturday. For one, it was all joy. For the two others. Not so much.

First to the women’s singles: Eugenie Bouchard, the 20-year-old phenom from Montreal, became the first Canadian woman to ever make the women’s Wimbledon finals. Alas, Bouchard, the eighth seed, was overmatched by 24-year-old Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, the sixth seed and 2011 champion, in straight sets 6-3, 6-0.

Eugenie Bouchard holds up her runners-up trophy after her defeat at Wimbledon on Saturday. She appears somewhat glum.
Eugenie Bouchard holds her runners-up trophy after being defeated by Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic in the women’s singles final at Wimbledon on Saturday. © Sang Tan

From the start, Bouchard appeared overmatched. Kvitova feasted on the Canadian’s second serve and outplayed her in all facets of the game. The match lasted 55 minutes.

“Sometimes, your opponent just plays better than you, and that’s what happened today” said Bouchard afterwards.

There was some good news for Bouchard as the players get ready for the summer hard court season that leads to the US Open in New York. She moved into to the top 10 for the first time–from number 13 to number seven. That’s the highest ranking ever of any Canadian woman, surpassing Carling Bassett who reached number eight and Helen Kelesi reached number 13.

There was better news in men’s doubles. Vasek Pospisil, the 24-year-old from Vancouver, was looking for a partner before the men’s competition began. So was 21-year-old American Jack Sock. Despite never having played together, the pair got hot and moved through the draw to the finals to face the best doubles team in the world, the Bryan twins, Bob and Mike, seeded number-one.

Pospisil and Sock prevailed in five tough sets: 7-6(5), 6-7(3), 6-4, 3-6, 7-5.

Both Pospisil (ranked 33rd in singles) and Sock (number 76 in singles) will be playing the summer tournaments, focusing on singles. But since both will likely be in some of the same cities this summer, the partnership could very well flower.

Meanwhile, there was bad news for 41-year-old Daniel Nestor of Toronto. Nestor holds 12 Grand Slam doubles titles in both men’s and mixed and is considered the greatest Canadian doubles player of all time.

Daniel Nestor in yellow and Kristina Mladenovic of France in a blue dress grab hands after winning a point at the Australian Open mixed doubles championship earlier this year.
Kristina Mladenovic of France and Daniel Nestor of Canada celebrate a point while winning the mixed doubles final at the Australian Open earlier this year. The 2013 Wimbledon champions failed to repeat this year, losing in the semis on Saturday. © AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko

At Wimbledon, he and his partner Nenad Zimonjic (the two are the second ranked doubles team in the world) went out in the quarter-finals of the men, but hopes were high for the mixed. Nestor and his French partner, Kristina Mladenovic, were seeded 14th. They were also the reigning Wimbledon champions and won the Australian Open earlier this year.

They could not match those victories. In Saturday’s semi-finals, Nestor and Mladenovic lost to Max Mirnyi of Belarus (a former partner of Nestor) and Chan Hao-ching of Taiwan 7-6(4) and 7-5. The semi-final loss moved Nestor’s individual ranking in doubles from sixth to fifth.

Canada’s big Saturday took place a day after Canada’s top male tennis player, Milos Raonic, the 24-year-old eighth seed, played Roger Federer in the men’s semis. It was not a good day for Raonic, who was dismantled in workmanlike fashion by Roger Federer 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

Despite the loss, Raonic’s singles ranking jumped from ninth to sixth in the world. in the That’s the highest ranking for any Canadian since computer rankings began in 1973.

Yahoo Sports Stephanie Myles covered Wimbledon from start to finish and joined Terry Haig from the airport in Newark, New Jersey, on her way home to Montreal.

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