Vasek Pospisil of Vernon, British Columbia is in the second round of the 2020 ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, Netherlands. However it is his performance on Wednesday that has the tennis world buzzing. Pospisil, the 104th ranked player in the world, beat the fifth ranked player in the world, Daniil Medvedev of Russia, 6-4, 6-3, in the first round of the tournament.
Pospisil was not on the court for very long. He only needed one hour and eight minutes to beat the first seed of the tournament. In the match, Pospisil had 21 winners and 13 unforced errors, while Medvedev had 19 winners and 17 unforced errors. After the match Medvedev stated he was simply “not good enough”.
This was Pospisil’s third career win over a top five player on the ATP Tour. He previously defeated Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-4 in the third round of the 2014 Citi Open in Washington, D.C. and Andy Murray of Great Britain 6-4, 7-6 in the second round of Indian Wells in 2017. Three years ago, Pospisil was ranked 129th in the world and Murray was ranked first. Pospisil will now face Filip Krajinovic of Serbia in the second round on Thursday.
Pospisil is one of two Canadians left in the tournament. Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal, Quebec is in the quarterfinals. So far Auger-Aliassime has beaten Jan-Lenard Struff of Germany 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 in the first round and Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 6-4, 6-2 in the second round. Auger-Aliassime will next play Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia on Friday.
