Advertisement

Vasek Pospisil, the forgotten Canadian at Wimbledon, reaches the doubles final

WIMBLEDON – There is another Canadian in the final weekend at Wimbledon.

It might not be as glamorous an event as the men's and women's singles – nor is it quite as monumental an accomplishment. But 24-year-old Vasek Pospisil is in the men's doubles final with American partner Jack Sock, who is just 21.

The two routined a very, very good team, No. 5 seeds Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek, 7-6, 7-6, 6-4 in Friday's semi-final match. Paes and Stepanek are the reigning U.S. Open doubles champions. They also won the Australian Open doubles together in 2012. Pospisil and Sock made them look positively ordinary.

Here's how it looked. The young Can-American team was pumped.

Seriously, how much fun are these two having? A whole lotta fun.

The only unfortunate part was how few Tennis Canada people were on hand to cheer him on. They've been arriving in London the last few days, and some were already here. We couldn't spot any of them. By the end, high-performance boss Louis Borfiga was on hand.

New Tennis Canada president Kelly Murumets and her husband, as well as Tennis Canada PR manager Sarah Grossman, were invited to sit on the players' box by the Raonic family during his match.

Hopefully they will stick around later after the ladies' final to watch Pospisil and Sock square off against of the best doubles duos of all time in the final, Bob and Mike Bryan of the U.S. Pospisil and Sock, with all their energy and enthousiasm, are almost like a younger version of the Bryans, in court presence if not in style or accomplishment.

And there could be another Canadian in a Wimbledon final. Toronto's Daniel Nestor, who lost in the quarter-finals of the doubles, is in the semi-finals of the mixed doubles with Kristina Mladenovic of France.

They will play their semi-final later Saturday; Mladenovic is also in the women's doubles final, which will be played after the Bouchard-Kvitova match on Centre Court. The Pospisil-Sock doubles final will follow that.

If they win Saturday, there will be another Canuck playing in a Wimbledon final on Sunday. It's not Milos Raonic, but as consolation prizes go, it's not half-bad.