Andy Murray was stunned in his opening match at the BNP Paribas Open by a man ranked 128 places below him, losing 6-4, 7-6 (4) to Canadian qualifier Vasek Pospisil on Saturday night.
It was, without a doubt, the biggest singles victory of Pospisil’s career. The 26-year-old Vancouver native’s best accomplishment in tennis to date was winning a Wimbledon doubles title with Jack Sock of the U.S.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” Pospisil told the Guardian. “Obviously, it happened pretty quick. I feel like on a comeback trail.”
Pospisil joked to Tennis Channel that his lowly current world ranking was due to a “mid-life crisis” that saw him endure a lean 2016, after he had made the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 2015.
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“I had a tough year last year for many, many different reasons. I feel the last couple months I really found my hunger and my motivation to be back on the court training hard again,” he said.
There really was little reason to believe beforehand that Murray would have so much trouble. He is ranked No. 1, owns three Grand Slam singles titles and two Olympic singles golds, has about $55 million more in career earnings than Pospisil and a 45-0 edge in singles trophies. Plus, Murray won all four previous head-to-head matchups.
But Pospisil attacked second serves with great success and broke Murray four times, while also keeping him off-balance with strong net play.
*with a file from Reuters
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