Former World No. 25 Vasek Pospisil Wows Hollyburn Crowd at Odlum Brown VanOpen

Since he arrived in Vancouver late last week, Vasek Pospisil has emphasized how much this is his “home” tournament. The 28-year-old was born in Vernon, grew up in Vancouver, and won the Odlum Brown VanOpen singles title in 2013 – so it’s easy to understand why Pospisil considers it home.

On Tuesday night, he made his return to Centre Court and gutted out a tough 7-6, 3-6, 6-3 win over fellow Canadian and Vancouverite Benjamin Sigouin. The 19-year-old was no pushover and at one point was leading 3-2 in the third set before Pospisil battled back to win four games in a row.

“I’m very happy to be through, I knew it was going to be a tough one. He’s a very talented young player, I thought he played really well and I had to be sharp,” said Pospisil, who won the Men’s Doubles title at Wimbledon in 2014 and has a career high World No. 25 ranking.

Pospisil will play Australian Marc Polmans in the second round. Other men advancing on Wednesday were Ruben Bemelmens, who knocked off Canadian rising star Felix Auger-Aliassime, former World No. 21 Gilles Muller, 2013 Odlum Brown VanOpen finalist Daniel Evans, and Italy’s Thomas Fabbiano, who beat Filip Peliwo of North Vancouver.

On the women’s side, two seeded players won and two were knocked out. Top seed Kateryna Kozlova topped Fiona Ferro 6-3, 6-3, while fifth seed Katie Boulter beat crowd favourite Francoise Abanda of Montreal 1-6, 6-3, 6-2. Great Britain’s Heather Watson won against third seed Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-2, 6-2 and Irina Khomacheva advanced when her opponent – and fourth seed – Ons Jabeur retired due to an illness.

In the first round of women’s main draw doubles, the Canadian team of Rebecca Marino and Carson Branstine needed a tiebreaker to get by the third seeds Alexa Guarachi of Chile and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand, 6-3, 3-6, 10-6.

Matches continue Wednesday, August 15 at 10 am, featuring Men’s First Round Singles and Quarterfinals Doubles, and Women’s First Round Singles and Doubles. Tickets are available at https://vanopen.com/tickets.

Photo credit: Bo Mon Kwan