Just hours after claiming an unprecedented victory over world number one Andy Murray at the BNP Paribas Open, a beaming Vasek Pospisil sat down with the press to discuss his career-best victory, along with the reasons behind a slump that saw him fall out of the top 100 late last year.
Pospisil Thrilled With Career-Best Scalp After 2016 Slump
Just four weeks ago, an injured Pospisil fell to a little-known Chinese player named Zhang Ze in the final of an ATP Challenger event in San Francisco, his first singles final in more than two-and-a-half years. Fast forward to a month later, and Pospisil is now the latest player to record a victory over a world number one, becoming the first Canadian to complete such a feat since Daniel Nestor did it more than a quarter century ago.
“[It’s an] amazing feeling,” he said. “Obviously, you know, it happened pretty quick. I feel like on a comeback trail. I had a tough year last year for many, many different [personal and professional] reasons.”
“I feel the last couple months I really found my hunger and my motivation to be back on the court training hard again. You know, I felt like a big result was coming, because I believe in my abilities, but just kind of had to put the pieces together again. Obviously to beat the number one player in the world is incredible. I mean, it’s the biggest win of my career, and I’m just thrilled right now.”
When asked where this win lands on the list of his greatest achievements, Pospisil puts this at the top of the list with his Wimbledon doubles title, which are without question the biggest highlights of his blossoming career. “If I pick a handful of great moments of my career, I mean, this is definitely one of them, to beat number one player and somebody as accomplished as Andy, one of the greats of the game,” he added.
Pospisil Credits Aggressive Mindset for His Success
After seeing three golden chances come and go to break the Murray serve early, Pospisil quickly found himself down a break midway through the opening set. Despite this, the qualifier remained optimistic, playing each game one point at a time, a mentality that proved to have reaping rewards for the Canadian.
“[After I went down a break], I didn’t feel like—I started a little bit kind of tentative or, I don’t know, kind of just trying to get into the match. And I just felt well,” he explained. “Even going down a break, I think, two times or—yeah, I think I went down two times. Each time I’d say, ‘Well, I’ll go point by point and I can break Andy back. Just trying to stay focused on competing well.’”
And as the match progressed, Pospisil soon saw his chances coming thick and fast and wasted no time in using his experience to impose his aggressive game on Murray, who uncharacteristically cracked under the pressure. “And then I was getting—you know, I felt like I was playing better as the match was going on, especially in that first set. And then, yeah, I was just kind of sticking to the game plan and kind of distracting my mind with what I wanted to do on the court,” explained the former world number 25.
Impressively, Pospisil was able to run off six games in a row from 2-4 down in the first set to 2-0 up in the second, edging one step closer to the finish line. But naturally, those steps didn’t come without their fair share of nerves as the world number 129 saw his early break in the second quickly slip from his grasp after having looks at a double break midway through the set. “Of course, you know, still some thoughts come in, especially in the second set,” he added. “You know, it’s not every day you’re close to beating the number one player in the world.”
Showing his experience, even when under pressure, Pospisil managed to stay in touch with Murray, mirroring each and every one of his service holds to force a tiebreak, where his fearless attitude turned out to pay dividends in securing him one of his greatest victories to date. As he told the press, “I was telling myself, especially in the tiebreak, I was saying, ‘Whatever the score is, I don’t want to have any regrets.’ I don’t want to come out of the match, thinking, ‘Oh, why did I play a passive point when I’m playing one of the best baseliners ever, you know, [who] just loves long points?’”
“I didn’t want to have regrets. If I lose this tiebreak, I would have been okay with it if I had tried to take my chances. Hence, the serve and volley on the second serve, I thought he would just want to make the return. Played a little bit differently than I did playing against him in previous times. It worked out well tonight.”