Vasek Pospisil still not 100 per cent, but in Atlanta to begin his summer hard-court campaign
Whether he will be fully fit is the question that remains to be answered, but No. 2 Canadian Vasek Pospisil headed to Atlanta Saturday to complete in the BB&T Atlanta Open, where he was a quarter-finalist a year ago and won the doubles title with American partner Jack Sock.
As a direct consequence of his quarter-final effort at Wimbledon, which boosted his ranking, Pospisil will be the No. 2 seed and as a result, will get a first-round bye in the 28-player singles draw.
That gives the Canadian a few extra days, as he continues to heal a bone bruise in his right wrist suffered at Wimbledon. Pospisil told Eh Game he didn't expect to play before Wednesday (or possibly Thursday).
The Canadian has been slowly getting back into form, beginning with a half-hour of hitting last Monday, and gradually increasing it to an hour and a half on Friday. He said that if there are no setbacks he anticipates playing a full summer schedule: Atlanta, Washington D.C. (where he is the defending finalist), the Rogers Cup in Montreal, the Masters 1000 tournament in Cincinnati and the U.S. Open.
The Wimbledon results didn't kick in early enough to make the cutoffs in Montreal and Cincinnati, which are six weeks before the tournament. At these top events, you typically have to be in the top 45 to gain direct entry. So Pospisil will need a wild card in Montreal, and will be in the qualifying in Cincinnati.
Pospisil and Sock hadn't entered the doubles together in Atlanta (they are entered at the Rogers Cup), but clearly the Canadian is feeling up to par; they signed in on site and are the No. 2 seeds. It will give him a good opportunity to test out the wrist before his first singles match.
Pospisil has ranking points to defend in Atlanta and also in D.C. – 345 ranking points in all, nearly a third of his current total.
(Warning: convoluted ATP rankings calculations and scenarios below)
The schedule this season is staggered by a week, so even though the ATP Tour ranking system is a rolling 52-week calculation, with the points from a tournament the previous year normally dropping off when the points earned from the same tournament this year are added on, Pospisil's Atlanta points will drop on Monday. But he has withstood that; in fact, despite missing this week's tournament in Bógota, Colombia because of the wrist (he was a quarter-finalist there a year ago), Pospisil actually will move up one spot, to No. 29 as of Monday's new rankings.
The 300 points from the D.C. final, in which he lost to countryman Milos Raonic, will fall off next Monday, so anything he can do this week in Atlanta will mitigate that loss. At worst, he will still remain inside the top 50. Even if he manages to win Atlanta, which is a 250-level tournament (D.C. is an ATP 500), he will still drop, at least temporarily, outside the top 35 with whatever results he can put up in D.C. to be added on to that the following week.
(Calculations over).
Pospisil and Sock currently stand eighth in the ATP Tour Finals doubles race even though, with five tournaments together, they have played far fewer events than any other duo in the top 15. The pair narrowly missed qualifying for the year-end event in London last year (generally, the top eight teams make it); they also are entered in D.C. and the Rogers Cup together.
Pospisil's first opponent won't be an easy one. He will face the winner of Yen-Hsun Lu of Taipei and Malek Jaziri of Tunisia, both solid players.
