Canada’s Pospisil eliminated in second-round loss to Medvedev at Vienna

VIENNA — Vancouver’s Vasek Pospisil was eliminated from the Erste Bank Open indoor hardcourt tennis tournament on Thursday after a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 loss to fourth seed Daniil Medvedev.

Both players showed off powerful serves in the match, which took just under two hours to complete. Pospisil had 14 aces, while his Russian opponent had 17.

Neither was overly accurate with his serve — Medvedev was good on 62 per cent of his first serves compared to 58 for Pospisil.

When his first serve was accurate, Medvedev took 80 per cent of available points compared to 77 per cent for Pospisil. The gap was wider on second-serve points: 58 per cent for Medvedev to 38 per cent for the Canadian qualifier.

Medvedev broke Pospisil three times on nine chances and saved five of the six break points he faced. 

Medvedev next faces South Africa’s Kevin Anderson at the ATP 500 event.

The Russian now leads the career series with Pospisil 2-1. Pospisil had won the last matchup at an indoor hardcourt tournament February in Rotterdam, Netherlands. 

Pospisil was the last Canadian remaining in singles competition after beating countryman Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal 7-5, 7-5 in a first-round match Wednesday.

Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., seeded eighth in Vienna, was eliminated Monday in a shock defeat to Austrian wild-card Jurij Rodionov.

Also Thursday, Dominic Thiem beat Cristian Garin 6-3, 6-2 to set up a quarterfinal against Andrey Rublev.

The defending champion, who is seeded second, lost only 10 points on his serve and wrapped up the win in just over an hour.

“It was a real good match, very solid from start to finish,” Thiem said in an on-court interview.

The fifth-seeded Rublev, who is seeking his fifth tournament win of the season, led Jannik Sinner 2-1 in the opening set when the Italian player retired with a foot injury.

“(Rublev) has entered the top 10 last week and the way he is playing, I would say he is among the five best players in the world right now,” said Thiem, who trains with the eighth-ranked Rublev regularly.

Lorenzo Sonego edged Hubert Hurkacz 7-6 (6), 7-6 (2) to set up a quarterfinal against top-seeded Novak Djokovic.

The 42nd-ranked Sonego lost in qualification but replaced Diego Schwartzman in the main draw after the Argentine pulled out with an injury.

Daniel Evans came back from a break down in both sets to beat Austrian wild-card entry Jurij Rodionov 7-5, 6-3.

The Briton will next take on third-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas or Grigor Dimitrov, who were scheduled to play later Thursday.

– With files from The Associated Press.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 29, 2020.

The Canadian Press