Vasek Pospisil of Vernon, British Columbia won his third match on the ATP Tour season in 2022 on Tuesday. In the first round of the Tel Aviv Watergen Open in Israel, Pospisil upset the tournament’s eighth seed and the world’s 52nd ranked player, Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands, 4-6, 7-6, 7-5.
In the three-set win, Pospisil’s serve was working extremely well as he had 20 aces. He also won 87% of his first serve points. It was the second time in Pospisil’s career he has beaten Griekspoor, as he was also victorious 7-5, 6-1 in the first round of the 2017 Ricoh Open in Rosmalen, Netherlands.
Pospisil has been a career-high 25th in the world, and is currently 149th. He will next play Edan Leshem of Israel in the second round on Thursday. Leshem is 446th in the world, and beat fellow Israeli Yshai Oliel, the 383rd ranked player in the world, 6-3, 6-2 on Tuesday. This will be the first time Pospisil has ever played Leshem.
Pospisil’s two other wins on the ATP Tour in 2022 came at the 2022 Dallas Open in February. There he beat American wildcard Caleb Chakravarthi 6-1, 6-0 in the first round, and then Austrian qualifier Jurij Rodionov 6-7, 7-6, 6-2 in the second round. Pospisil then lost to John Isner of the United States 6-4, 6-4 in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals of the 2022 Dallas Open, tennis history was made as American Reilly Opelka beat Isner 24-22 in the second set tiebreak, in winning the match, 7-6, 7-6. This was the longest tiebreak in terms of points (46) in the history of tennis.
Pospisil does have one other critical win in 2022. That came at the 2022 Davis Cup Finals, where he beat Song-chan Hong of South Korea 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 from Valencia, Spain earlier this month.
Pospisil is one of two Canadians to win on the ATP Tour this week. On Wednesday, Denis Shapovalov of Toronto, Ontario, the fourth seed, beat Jaume Munar of Spain, 7-5, 6-4 in the second round of the Korea Open after getting a first round bye. He will next play Radu Albot of Moldova on Thursday evening (Friday in Seoul).
