Pospisil defeats 30th seed Fognini, advances to third round at Wimbledon

Vasek Pospisil of Canada celebrates defeating James Ward of Britain during their singles match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London, Saturday July 4, 2015.

Having defied his 111th world ranking for much of the campaign, the test of Pospisil proved a bridge too far as the Canadian came back to clinch a 6-4 4-6 2-6 6-3 8-6 victory in a gruelling three-hour encounter.

Ward had been subject to intense pressure before in Davis Cup ties but never anything quite like this. Pospisil thus chose to serve to the Ward forehand for most of the match, though in the final set it hardly mattered, for he was striking the serve so sweetly that it was nearly impossible to return from any position. But Ward broke him in his first service game of the second set, and rode that to a 6-3 win to even the match. “But, yes, we should really try and keep our emotions intact as best as possible and have respect for the rules”. It certainly definitively elevates him from the first-round British cannon fodder he is sometimes erroneously lumped in with.

Bjorkman, who joined Murray’s coaching staff in March, admitted Ward will face a tricky but eminently winnable clash against world number 56 Pospisil, with a place in Wimbledon’s last 16 at stake.

After the first two sets had been split, he lost his rhythm dramatically in a third that saw his powerful 128mph serve broken twice while 12 unforced errors flowed from his racket. The umpire lectured him back. Such are the fine margins between success and failure.

In the second James Ward broke in the first game after two doubles faults by Pospisil.

Pospisil, who won the doubles title previous year, will next play Viktor Troicki. “It used to be more the case, you know, trying to equal Pete; that stuff”.

His five-set record before Saturday stood at five wins from seven attempts. And as he did so, the initially lukewarm atmosphere began to bubble.

“Right now isn’t the time to look at the positives but I’m sure I’ll look back, get ready for the Davis Cup next, pick myself up and go again there”, said Ward, who will climb into the world’s top 100 for the first time following his run at Wimbledon. This will be the second time Troicki reached the fourth round of the Wimbledon.

Not that the match remained anything other than tight.

You could describe the style as staccato, although there were at least a couple of long and meandering rallies that took the players to all parts of the court.

“Come on Wardy”. “Come on Ward”.

While Ward was offering sporadic moments of hope, Pospisil had a vice-like grip on proceedings on his serve, conceding just two points in his six service games as the match entered the sudden-death tiebreak.

“Yeah of course”, said Ward when asked if he still considers himself Britain’s second-best player behind Murray. Whatever it said, it worked.

At one point during that fourth set, the Canadian could be seen furiously consulting a notebook during a change of ends.