Pospisil advances to third round at Wimbledon – Inside Toronto

“Even if they’re not cheering for me I just embrace the situation”. So local and likeable and unpretentious that last week he was travelling to practice at SW19 from his London apartment on the tube, just an unrecognizable strap-hanger.

Pospisil’s Canadian upbringing is reflected in his lumberjack’s physique and giant redwood thighs.

But Pospisil, the just-turned 25-year-old from Vernon, B.C., endures.

Just a great week to James Ward who before Wimbledon had 1/8 record in Grand Slams and now he has a third round in the Championship and good feeling to face the tie against France for the quarterfinals at the Davis Cup main group.

Ward only earned his first Davis Cup place after an unofficial play-off in 2009, where one match against Chris Eaton lasted nearly seven hours. But a hometown house can beat the odds.

The Vancouver native fired 19 aces and had 57 winners en route to victory.

The British No 4 lost the first set against the big-serving Pospisil but delighted No 1 Court by taking the next two sets to open up a 2-1 advantage.

“Now this is more something like you talk about for a couple weeks, it’s gone again and then you have to wait a year if you don’t do it. So I wasn’t nervous about that”.

Pospisil, in fact, is the reigning Wimbledon champion in men’s doubles alongside his American partner Jack Sock.

On this afternoon, he almost lost his focus before regaining it in time. Obviously I haven’t seen him playing much before I started working with Andy, but he’s a great guy.

“I’ve made my first fourth round so I am super happy right now but I am really thrilled with the way I ended the match”. It proved to be the difference, for all the full-throated backing of a crowd willing Ward into the second week, when he broke Ward’s serve – and his resistance – in the 13th game of a titanic fifth set. It was a classy way to finish and for Ward, as with Watson, it was more a case of being beaten by a player with a hot hand than it was of handing the match over on a plate.

His serve returned and he began walking through his service games again, putting the pressure on Ward – who was feeling the heat any Brit feels in this tournament.

“My first one. I’m excited, and not done yet. That was key”.

Pospisil, who was ranked 56th in the world coming into the tournament and has now climbed into the low 40s, will play Serbian Viktor Troicki, the 22nd seed at Wimbledon, on Monday.

It was history repeatin’, though.

The man who lives opposite Euston station steamed to a second-successive set and looked primed to close in on another impressive victory.

He advanced to the third round with a 6-2, 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-3 win over Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic. Thus Brown had less success with his eccentric assortment of half-volleys and drop shots, including one ridiculous return that spun back over the net to his own side of the court.

Two days in the Wimbledon sun, two heroic failures, two British players with a lot more credit in the bank than they arrived with.