Injured, Vasek Pospisil retires vs. Wawrinka in Chennai semifinal

A terrific first week on the ATP Tour ended Saturday as Vasek Pospisil slowly, gingerly, walked off the court in Chennai, India, accompanied by a tour trainer.

The 23-year-old from Vancouver was forced to retire from his semifinal match against No. 1 seed Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland when, despite extensive treatment, his lower back would no longer allow him to put any weight upon his left leg.

The score was 6-4, 5-5 in favour of Wawrinka when Pospisil stopped play; he had battled back from being a break down in that second set, but could do no more.

Pospisil is expected in Sydney, Australia for the final warm-up event before the Australian Open. He was drawn to meet big-serving American Sam Querrey in the first round.

He matched Wawrinka forehand for forehand during Saturday’s match. Where he fell short was on break points; he converted just one of the 10 he earned as Wawrinka had far more trouble holding serve than he did.

Two of the Swiss player’s service games clocked in at close to 10 minutes.

The one service break against Pospisil in the first set – the first time he lost his in the tournament – came on a double fault.

The break in the second set came after Pospisil was called for a foot fault on a second serve at 30-all, then proceeded to double-fault again.

The word from Pospisil’s camp Saturday night was that he would travel Down Under (an 18-hour trip), and that his health would be re-evaluated upon arrival in Sydney.

But they won’t take any chances, not with the first Grand Slam tournament of the season looming. He had other physical issues Saturday: his left ankle was heavily taped and needed adjusting early on. He also had kinesio tape on the back of his lower quad/knee.

Pospisil will be ranked No. 30 come Monday, which will be a new career high. He will be one of the 32 seeded players in Melbourne; that means he won’t have to face one of the top eight players in the world until at least the third round of the tournament.