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In lieu of singles, Canadian men's doubles take centre stage at the French Open

Stephanie Myles
For the first time since Madrid, where Pospisil injured his ankle, Pospisock was back in action and advanced to the second round of men's doubles at the French Open. (Stephanie Myles/opencourt.ca)

PARIS – The last time Canadian Vasek Pospisil and American partner Jack Sock were on the court three weeks ago, Pospisil jumped for a backhand, came down squarely on Sock's foot, and sprained his ankle badly enough that he barely made it back in time for the French Open.

They very well could have been out in the first round, too, against the little-known but game pair of Victor Estrella Burgos of the Dominican Republic and Joao Souza of Brazil.

Pospisock, as they've come to be known, survived, winning 7-6 (3), 4-6, 7-6 (4) after they were very nearly down 0-4 in the third set.

Here's what it looked like.

The Can-American pair found themselves down 0-3, love-40 and all that increasingly emblematic energy was completely absent. Sock, the loose one of the two, the one who keeps Pospisil laughing and keeps up a stream of entertaining play-by-play during a match, was silent – as was his howitzer forehand.

Pospisil grimaced a few times on the ankle, but he looked a lot more comfortable than he did in his first-round singles match against Joao Sousa (with an "S", the Portuguese Joao).

Suddenly, the light went on. Pospisil was back. They caught up, and the No. 2 seeds made enough shots in the tiebreak to win it and move on to the second round.

Earlier in the day, veteran Daniel Nestor and his (nearly equally veteran) partner Leander Paes of India also were involved in a tight one against the Australian pair of James Duckworth and big-serving lefty Chris Guccione.

It looked easy. Then one bad serving game by Nestor at the end gave the Aussies the second set. And then it was neck-and-neck until 5-all in the third set before Nestor and Paes prevailed 6-2, 5-7, 7-5.

It had to be a welcome win. Nestor and Paes, combined ages 83, haven't won many matches since they teamed up after the Miami event. Nestor even played the warmup tournament in Nice, France the week before the French Open with Alexander Peya of Austria. He told Eh Game that you can practice all you want, but there's no substitute for match play and he just hadn't been getting nearly enough.

Nestor and Paes are seeded No. 10. The third Canadian in the men's doubles, Adil Shamasdin of Pickering, Ont., had a tougher road as an unseeded team with Australia's Rameez Junaid. They drew the No. 5 pair, Jean-Julier Rojer of the Netherlands (via Curaçao) and Horia Tecau of Romania, an experienced pair.

Shamasdin and Junaid, who have had some good wins this spring together, had their chances, especially in the second set tiebreaker when they opened with a mini-break. But in the end they lost 6-4, 7-6 (5).

Here is some action from both matches.

There is still more doubles to come. Gloucester, Ont.'s Gabriela Dabrowski and Polish partner Alicja Rosolska play their first match on Thursday against the No. 11 seeds, Yung-Jan Chan of Taiwan and Zie Zheng of China. Tough first round but within their reach.

And Genie Bouchard has not left the building; she signed up for mixed doubles with Max Mirnyi of Belarus; they face the No. 2 seeds, Australian Open women's doubles champion Bethanie Mattek-Sands and multiple, multiple Grand-Slam winning Mike Bryan.

Bouchard has played very little mixed doubles, which is mostly the domain of the doubles specialists and only happens at Grand Slams.

She played at Wimbledon in 2013 with Kyle Edmund of Great Britain, losing in the first round. She was scheduled to play at the 2014 Australian Open with Bernard Tomic. But Tomic retired in his singles match against Rafael Nadal and then had hip surgery, so that was out. A plan to play with with another partner fell through as Bouchard was making her big move in singles, and also reached the third round of doubles with Vera Dushevina of Russia.

She has played mixed the last two years at the exhibition Hopman Cup event before the Australian Open – in 2014 with Milos Raonic, and this year with Vasek Pospisil. She went 1-1 with Raonic, and 0-3 with Pospisil this year.

Nestor and Paes will meet Andre Begemann of Germany and Julian Knowle of Austria in the second round. Pospisil and Sock will play Sweden's Robert Lindstedt and Austria's Jurgen Melzer. Lindstedt was out scouting the match on Wednesday; Pospisil and Sock had some Aussie support with young guns Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis on hand to cheer them on.