Giant-serving Canadian Vasek Pospisil reveals how he was destroyed by Novak Djokovic despite being at his best


Giant-serving Canadian Vasek Pospisil reveals how he was destroyed by Novak Djokovic despite being at his best

Novak Djokovic, Vasek Pospisil

Former World No.25 Vasek Pospisil recently spoke about how difficult always it was for him to face up against friend and former World No.1 Novak Djokovic, of whom he has never taken even a set off in their six professional meetings. Pospisil who was once a dominant singles player, has posted some good wins in 2022 and remains on course to possibly win the ATP’s Comeback Player of the Year award for the second time in his career.

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“The most difficult for me is definitely Novak, also if you take into account the style of play and the pairing with him being the best returner of all time and the serve being one of my strengths, you know it’s a big challenge,” Pospisil recently said in an episode of the Match Point Canada tennis podcast.

Djokovic and Pospisil met most recently in the quarterfinals of the Tel Aviv Open, where despite putting up a strong resistance with his consistent serves and some good groundstrokes, the Canadian once again lost in straight sets, 7-6, 6-3. However, post that result, Djokovic also went on to win the Astana Open ATP 500 tournament in Kazakhstan, and has been in unparalleled form.

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“The last couple of weeks, especially in Tel Aviv, I was playing at a really high level. Played a great match against Novak, where I thought I was quite competitive and it is always tough as he is a really good friend of mine and so I had to battle the fact that he is a good buddy and one of the feared players in the history of our sport,” Pospisil elaborated himself in the podcast.

Pospisil added: “I had to turn all of that into going out there and believing that I could win, which I managed to do, which isn’t always the case. I think it is also a testament to the fact that I have been playing better and working hard and I wanted to win that match. I think the tennis showed it and he’s super gracious and said some really nice things to me after the match and gave me lot of confidence as well.”

When Vasek Pospisil lashed out at ATP’s chairman for bizarre remarks on Challenger events

Vasek Pospisil and Andrea Gaudenzi
Andrea Gaudenzi (L) and Vasek Pospisil (R)

Pospisil may not be the most decorated player in the tennis community, but he never shies away from speaking his mind out. Pospisil also cofounded the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) alongside Djokovic, whose objective was to promote equality and fairness among all ranks of players.

Initially, PTPA stirred up a huge controversy, with some well-known names like Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer not accepting the idea of a rival organization to ATP. Pospisil has always been vocal about the needs of the players competing at the Challenger events, and the fairly insufficient pay checks.

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In 2021, Pospisil lashed out at the ATP Chairman, Andrea Gaudenzi on his bold claim on the Challenger events. The Canadian was certainly not impressed with what the chairman had to say on these events, and posted his opinion on Twitter.

Andrea Gaudenzi had stated that players in the challenger events will have to pay their own costs, and their main objective should be to break even. He drew a similarity with an investment a student makes when he enters an university.

In the Challenger Tour you should be able to break even & pay your costs. But you have to be conscious that this is sort of like a university. It’s an investment. Then go & move into the pro tour where you have a job,” Gaudenzi had said.

The members of PTPA believe that by having ATP has the principal body over the past decades, it has given ATP a lot of power, which is not good for the sport going forward. This was the main reason which led to the inception of PTPA in August 2020.

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