Vasek Pospisil was feeling run down after dropping back-to-back sets in the third round of the U.S. Open on Saturday.
But a timely visit by a physiotherapist early in the fourth set helped turned things around for the 30-year-old Canadian.
Pospisil rallied to beat No. 8 seed Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain 7-5, 2-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 to advance to the fourth round of the U.S. Open for the first time in his career.
The Vancouver player, already dealing with an abdominal strain, added a right quadriceps strain to his ailments sometime during Saturday’s match, and called for a medical timeout two games into the fourth set.
WATCH | Vasek Pospisil advances to U.S. Open 4th round for 1st time:
Vancouver’s Vasek Pospisil defeated Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain 7-5, 2-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 for the first time in his career to advance on Saturday afternoon. 3:32
“At that point I knew there was no room for error so I just said: ‘well, OK if I play a perfect match now, if I win two more sets I can win the match,’ and yeah, it just happened that way,” said Pospisil.
“I played aggressive, I executed extremely well. … I played a pretty flawless two sets there in the fourth and fifth.”
Pospisil said both injuries are manageable, but he’ll monitor them before his next match Monday against No. 21 seed Alex de Minaur of Australia.
Auger-Aliassime sweeps way into 4th round
Later Saturday, No. 15 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal crushed Corentin Moutet of France 6-1, 6-0, 6-4, making him the third Canadian man to advance to the fourth round of the Grand Slam tournament.
Aliassime cruised through the first two sets before Moutet battled in the third.
WATCH | Auger-Aliassime pulls off outrageous tweener:
Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal goes up 5-0 in the second set of his third round U.S. Open match with a dazzling tweener and soft finish. 0:28
“It was interesting, because even though you win the first two sets easily, you got to forget about those,” said Aliassime. “You’re up two sets to love. That’s mainly it. Obviously it’s better than being down.
“I was looking at it like, OK, even if he’s playing better, I knew his back is against the wall, he now has nothing to lose. He’s going to try everything.”
Record 3 Canadians into round of 16
Auger-Aliassime and Pospisil joined Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., in the round of 16. Shapovalov beat American Taylor Fritz in five sets on Friday.
Before this tournament, three Canadian men never had advanced to the third round of the event in the same year. Now, Shapovalov, Auger-Aliassime and Pospisil are four wins away from matching fellow Canadian Bianca Andreescu’s feat from last year when she captured the women’s title at the event.
No Canadian man has reached the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open, going 0-12 in the round of 16.
Pospisil, ranked No. 94, came into the match 0-3 in his career against Bautista Agut.
Saturday’s win was Pospisil’s second straight upset of the tournament. He beat fellow Canadian and No. 25 seed Milos Raonic in the second round.
Pospisil looked to be heading towards defeat after losing the second and third sets against Bautista Agut, but a late break put the Canadian ahead 5-3 in the fourth before he easily served out the set.
Pospisil earned an early break in the fifth set en route to a 3-1 lead, then broke Bautista Agut once more to go up 5-2.
“(The physiotherapist) really, really helped it big time when he came onto the court,” Pospisil said. “He loosened up (the quad) and strapped it which really seemed to do wonders for it and I really didn’t feel it on my serve after that.”
Pospisil had 19 aces and 70 winners, including on the final point. He converted four of eight break points and saved 12 of 15.
Pospisil avenges Davis Cup defeat
Bautista Agut was part of the Spanish team that defeated Canada in the Davis Cup final last November. Pospisil had been on a tear throughout that tournament, but did not get a chance to play in the championship round. Bautista Agut beat Auger-Aliassime in the first rubber of the final round before Rafael Nadal topped Shapovalov to claim the championship.
Pospisil is 0-2 against de Minaur, with both losses coming in 2018. The Canadian has enjoyed a resurgence in his game, however, after returning from back surgery to repair a herniated disc in January 2019.
“I’m definitely playing better now than I was (in 2018),” Pospisil said.
Auger-Aliassime, 20, dispatched his opponent in under two hours, including a quick 28-minute second set.
Moutet, ranked 77th in the world, was no match for Auger-Aliassime after upsetting No. 23 seed Dan Evans of Great Britain in a suspended match that didn’t finish until Friday.
Auger-Aliassime will next face the winner of a match between No. 2 seed Dominic Thiem of Austria and No. 31 seed Marin Cilic of Croatia.
“I can obviously take a lot of positives from my win today,” Aliassime said. “With the way I served, I was only broken once, which didn’t really have a huge impact on the score at the end. I can be happy with that.”
No. 12 seed Shapovalov plays No. 7 seed David Goffin of Belgium in the fourth round Sunday.
Montreal Alouettes wide receiver Tyson Philpot has announced he will be out for the rest of the CFL season.
The Delta, B.C., native posted the news on his Instagram page Thursday.
“To Be Continued. Shoutout my team, the fans of the CFL and the whole city of Montreal! I can’t wait to be back healthy and write this next chapter in 2025,” the statement read.
Philpot, 24, injured his foot in a 33-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Aug. 10 and was placed on the six-game injured list the next week.
The six-foot-one, 195-pound receiver had 58 receptions, 779 yards and five touchdowns in nine games for the league-leading Alouettes in his third season.
Philpot scored the game-winning touchdown in Montreal’s Grey Cup win last season to punctuate a six-reception, 63-yard performance.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
NAPA, Calif. (AP) — David Lipsky shot a 7-under 65 on Thursday at Silverado Country Club to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Procore Championship.
Winless in 104 events since joining the PGA Tour in 2022, Lipsky went out with the early groups and had eight birdies with one bogey to kick off the FedEx Cup Fall series at the picturesque course in the heart of Napa Valley wine country.
After missing the cut in his three previous tournaments, Lipsky flew from Las Vegas to Arizona to reunite with his college coach at Northwestern to get his focus back. He also spent time playing with some of the Northwestern players, which helped him relax.
“Just being around those guys and seeing how carefree they are, not knowing what’s coming for them yet, it’s sort of nice to see that,” Lipsky said. “I was almost energized by their youthfulness.”
Patton Kizzire and Mark Hubbard were a stroke back. Kizzire started on the back nine and made a late run with three consecutive birdies to move into a tie for first. A bogey on No. 8 dropped him back.
“There was a lot of good stuff out there today,” Kizzire said. “I stayed patient and just went through my routines and played well, one shot at a time. I’ve really bee working hard on my mental game and I think that allowed me to rinse and repeat and reset and keep playing.”
Mark Hubbard was at 67. He had nine birdies but fell off the pace with a bogey and triple bogey on back-to-back holes.
Kevin Dougherty also was in the group at 67. He had two eagles and ended his afternoon by holing out from 41 yards on the 383-yard, par-4 18th.
Defending champion Sahith Theegala had to scramble for much of his round of 69.
Wyndham Clark, who won the U.S. Open in 2023 and the AT&T at Pebble Beach in February, had a 70.
Max Homa shot 71. The two-time tournament champion and a captain’s pick for the President’s Cup in two weeks had two birdies and overcame a bogey on the par-4 first.
Stewart Cink, the 2020 winner, also opened with a 71. He won The Ally Challenge last month for his first PGA Tour Champions title.
Three players from the Presidents Cup International team had mix results. Min Woo Lee shot 68, Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., 69 and Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., 73. International team captain Mike Weir of Brights Grove, Ont., also had a 69.
Ben Silverman of Thornhill, Ont., had a 68, Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., and Roger Sloan of Merritt, B.C., shot 70 and Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C., had a 71.
Lipsky was a little shaky off the tee for much of the afternoon but made up for it with steady iron play that left him in great shape on the greens. He had one-putts on 11 holes and was in position for a bigger day but left five putts short.
Lipsky’s only real problem came on the par-4 ninth when his approach sailed into a bunker just shy of the green. He bounced back nicely with five birdies on his back nine. After missing a 19-foot putt for birdie on No. 17, Lipsky ended his day with a 12-foot par putt.
That was a big change from last year when Lipsky tied for 30th at Silverado when he drove the ball well but had uneven success on the greens.
“Sometimes you have to realize golf can be fun, and I think I sort of forgot that along the way as I’m grinding it out,” Lipsky said. “You’ve got to put things in perspective, take a step back. Sort of did that and it seems like it’s working out.”
Laird stayed close after beginning his day with a bogey on the par-4 10th. The Scot got out of the sand nicely but pushed his par putt past the hole.
Homa continued to have issues off the tee and missed birdie putts on his final four holes.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic is moving on to the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open.
The Mississauga, Ont., native defeated the tournament top seed, Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) in the round of 16 on Thursday.
Stakusic faced a 0-4 deficit in the third and final set before marching back into the match.
The 19-year-old won five of the next six games to even it up before exchanging games to force a tiebreaker, where Stakusic took complete control to win the match.
Stakusic had five aces with 17 double faults in the three-hour, four-minute match.
However, she converted eight of her 18 break-point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
