Oct 17, 2018
Pospisil defeats Raonic at European Open
Vasek Pospisil advanced to the third round of the European Open tennis tournament with a 7-6 (3), 7-5 upset of fellow Canadian Milos Raonic on Wednesday.
The Canadian Press
Vasek Pospisil advanced to the third round of the European Open tennis tournament with a 7-6 (3), 7-5 upset of fellow Canadian Milos Raonic on Wednesday.
Pospisil, form Vancouver, beat his hard-serving opponent at his own game, firing 11 aces to Raonic's nine and converting 84 per cent of available first serve points.
Pospisil will next face the winner of an all-French matchup between Gael Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the next round.
It's Pospisil's first career win over Raonic, who is ranked 20th in the world and was seeded third at the tournament in Antwerp, Belgium. Raonic, from Thornhill, Ont., won the previous two meetings between the Canadians, including a semifinal victory at the 2013 Rogers Cup in Montreal.
It was the second all-Canadian matchup of the day after Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., defeated Thornhill's Peter Polansky 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 at the Stockholm Open.
Shapovalov, seeded seventh in Stockholm, will next face Ernests Gulbis of Latvia in the third round.
On the WTA Tour, qualifier Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., played one of her best matches in recent memory, downing third seed Carla Suarez Navarro 6-1, 6-0 at the Luxembourg Open.
Bouchard will face Andrea Petkovic of Germany in the third round in a battle of former top-10 players.