Vasek Pospisil will sleep well on Monday. What a day at Wimbledon!
Ten tough, gruelling sets of tennis. Tie breaks galore. Behind most of the day.
Through it all: incredible heart.
Ponder this.
First, Pospisil, ranked 56th in the world and second behind Milos Raonic in Canada, upset Viktor Troicki of Serbia, world No. 24, in their fourth-round match 4-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 to advance to the quarter-finals of the world’s most prestigious tennis tournament.
Then, for an encore, Pospisil, the reigning Wimbledon men’s doubles champion with partner Jack Sock, an American, played five more sets. This time in a third-round doubles match against Jamie Murray (Andy’s older brother) of Scotland and John Peers of Australia, the 13th seeds.
In both matches, Pospisil was down two sets to love before–somehow–finding the will to force things to a fifth and deciding set.
It paid off against Troicki.
It didn’t against Murray and Peers, who finally prevailed 6-3, 7-6, 6-7, 3-6, 8-6.
The singles win marked first time in his career that Pospisil, a 25-year-old from Vancouver, has come back from two sets down to win and the first time he’s made it to the quarter-finals of a major tournament. It was also the third of his four singles matches at this year’s Wimbledon that has gone five sets.
He now must face another Murray, Jamie’s younger brother, Andy, the Wimbledon winner two years ago and seeded third this year. Murray advanced with a four-set win Monday over Croatian Ivo Karlovic.
Meanwhile, the only other Canadian still playing on Monday, Daniel Nestor, is out of the tournament. Nestor and his partner, Leander Paes of India, the 11th seeds in men’s doubles, lost their third-round match in five sets to the eighth-seeded team of Alexander Peya of Austria and Bruno Soares of Brazil.
Nestor, who for many years was the sole Canadian to make it to the second week of Grand Slam tournaments, may be nearing the end of the road as he prepares to turn 43 in September.
He has 12 Grand Slam career doubles titles (eight in men’s and four in mixed), but he has not won at a Slam since winning the mixed at the 2014 Australian with Kristina Mladenovic of France.
The good news for Nestor is that he may not be done winning. His doubles partner in Davis Cup: Vasek Pospisil.
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