Vasek Pospisil out to make waves in singles, defend doubles title at Wimbledon

WIMBLEDON – Vasek Pospisil is starting his Wimbledon a little earlier than he planned.

Only three men's doubles matches, out of 32 scheduled for the first round, will be played on the first Monday at Wimbledon. Unfortunately for Pospisil, whose ambitions lie in singles but who is defending the surprise doubles title he won here a year ago with American Jack Sock, their match is one of them.

Pospisil and Sock open Court 19 (a great court, but not one with broadcast capabilities) at 11:30 a.m. Monday (6:30 a.m. EDT).

Under ordinary circumstances it might not be a bad thing, an opportunity to get out on the match courts at the All-England Club in a competitive situation for a bit of doubles before his singles quest begins on Tuesday.

But Wimbledon, always the Grand Slam iconoclast, stubbornly continues to favour a best-of-five set format in doubles. And Pospisil and Sock, seeded No. 3, have a very tough first round as they face rocket-serving Sam Groth of Australia and talented serve-and-volleyer Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine, who defeated then-defending champion Roger Federer in the second round here two years ago.

For a player with back issues, that's definitely not ideal.

The Canadian, who turned 25 last Tuesday, was forced to retire after the second set of his first-round match against Marcel Granollers in Nottingham this week.

Pospisil told Eh Game that he started feeling the tightness in his back in the first set (although he won the set), and then it was sort of a full-out back spasm, with a fair amount of pain. He’s been there before, although he’s been able to keep it under control reasonably well this season. 

Pospisil didn’t do anything on the tennis court for two or three days, with rest and ice and ibuprofen and re-alignment exercises on the schedule.

But he has practiced as normal here. He hit for two hours with American Tim Smyczek Friday, an hour and a half with Spaniard Pablo Andujar Saturday, and managed to get a 45-minute hit in Sunday with lefty Alejandro Falla before the rain gods declared the players really had bruised the grass enough for the time being.

Pospisil plays another lefty, French qualifier Vincent Millot (who, as it happens, is married to a Montrealer) on Tuesday in his first-round singles match.

Whether it's the main reason or not, the best-of-five format in doubles at Wimbledon seems to eliminate most players with singles aspirations from the equation.

Pospisil's singles prospects, on paper, might not be as good as partner Sock, who is the No. 31 seed. But Sock has the big-serving Groth in the first round and, potentially, No. 2 seed Federer in the third round.

Pospisil, on the other hand, has Millot, possibly the flaky and inconsistent No. 30 seed Fabio Fognini in the second round and, in a stroke of bad luck for Spanish veteran David Ferrer (who withdrew Sunday afternoon with an elbow injury), no Ferrer – or any seeded opponent – as a possibility in the third round.

Given those favourable circumstances, all the energy and focus has to be on singles for Pospisil, who wants to get back inside the top 50 for the first time in awhile.

The draw gods, therefore, have not been kind to him.

Putting aside Sock and Pospisil, here are the men playing both singles and doubles who have at least faint hope of getting into the second week – i.e., the fourth round.

Okay, moving on. Nothing to see there.

The only (singles) seeded players in the doubles draw are Viktor Troicki (No. 22), Leonardo Mayer (No. 24), Pablo Cuevas (No. 28), Guillermo Garcia Lopez (No. 29), Fognini and Sock, all of whom play doubles on a more-or-less regular basis anyway.

Of the nearly 40 players in the bottom half of the men's draw (Pospisil and Sock's half, the ones who play singles Tuesday) who are playing doubles, only a few teams have both players playing singles, with both players in that bottom half.

As it happens, those teams – including Pospisil and Sock, are scheduled for Monday.

With the official word about the scheduling being "wanting to clear off some of the doubles matches to avoid a possible bottleneck later on," that unravels the "mystery" of why Pospisil and Sock were among the chosen few to play on Monday.

Will the curveball have an effect on his singles quest? Only time will tell.