Vasek Pospisil wins in first round of Rogers Cup
Posted August 6, 2012 3:43 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Vancouver’s Vasek Pospisil won the tiebreaker to defeat Italy’s Andreas Seppi 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) on Monday in the first round of the Rogers Cup.
Seppi, 28, who entered the tournament ranked 26th in the world, took advantage to win the first set but then Pospisil took over and withstood Seppi’s third-set rally and will play Juan Monaco in the next round.
The 22-year-old Pospisil, who entered the tournament ranked 104th in the world but has been as high as 85th this year, competed in the Olympic Games last week.
With the first set at 3-3, Seppi broke Pospisil’s serve and maintained the advantage to take the set.
Pospisil, the No. 2 ranked Canadian behind Milos Raonic, of Thornhill, Ont., returned the favour in the second set when he took a 3-1 lead by breaking Seppi’s service in the fourth game.
But Pospisil let Seppi back into the set when he flubbed an easy overhand shot at the net. He had the advantage at deuce at the time and the simple shot would have allowed him to take a 4-1 lead in the set. But Seppi took advantage of the opportunity and rallied to take the game and break serve and the set stood at to 3-2 for Pospisil.
Seppi got even in the set at 4-4 and won the first two points on Pospisil’s serve in the next game but the Canadian recovered and held serve and broke Seppi’s serve to take the second set.
Pospisil got another service break to take a 2-0 lead in the third set then held his own to go up 3-0 and he was serving for the match at 5-3 when Seppi broke his service again and held his own to draw even at 5-5.
Pospisil had five match points before finally putting it away.
Earlier, Peter Polansky of Thornhill, Ont., breezed through the first set of his first-round match. But then it all fell apart for the 24-year-old from of Thornhill, Ont., as Australian Matthew Ebden Perth stormed back to take the match 0-6, 6-4, 6-3.
The first set took just 19 minutes as Polansky, a wild-card entry in the tournament, dominated.
“In the first set, his level just, he just wasn’t there,” Polansky said. “He was missing almost every single ball. And then he almost 360’d from there.”
The tempo of the match changed in the second set as Ebden, also 24, took the first three games after an adjustment in tactics. The rallies were longer but even then Polansky had a chance in the first game to continue his first-set dominance.
“I had those two break points at 15-40 in the first game on his serve in the second set,” Polansky said. “He held that game and then I got broken in the next game. After that it was just – you can call it a disaster.”
Ebden will play Mardy Fish in the next round of the tournament.
Both players had difficulty holding service in the second set but it cost Polansky more. Ebden again broke his serve to force the third set.
Ebden took a 2-0 lead in the final set. Polansky battled back to even it at 2-2. But Ebden surged ahead 5-2 before Polansky got back to 5-3 and had double-break point before Ebden rallied to put the match away.
“It’s very frustrating, especially having a big tournament like this, such a great opportunity,” Polansky said. “Not just playing in this tournament but the draw that I had, just so many chances to be had. Just wasn’t able to perform today.”
Polansky came into Rogers Cup at his career-high ranking of No. 155 in the world.
“I still need to work on just being more consistent,” he said. “Not from my groundstrokes but just my level of play and being able to keep up my good level for three, four matches in a row
“I think it’s important to work on those bigger points. I’ve got to be able to convert those bigger points. Like at 6-0, 15-40, if I converted one break point I would have been up a break and it’s a whole different story. Maybe he would have kept playing the way he was.”
The last time he played in Toronto was in 2010 and Polansky advanced into the second round with a victory over world No. 15 Juergen Melzer.
Polansky qualified for the 2010 U.S. Open and won his first-round match but he struggled after that and had to drop to Futures events and rebuilt his confidence with some victories.
But on Monday he missed a chance to take another step forward.
“I think it’s just more playing lots of matches and working on closing out those important games,” he said.
