By Richard Pagliaro
Tennis is a mind game and Vasek Pospisil suffered a major mental meltdown in Miami today.
The normally calm Canadian belted a ball out of Court 1 in anger, smashed a couple of racquets, then incurred a verbal abuse point penalty on set point in a wild tirade during his Miami Open opener against Mackenzie McDonald.
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All that vitriol preceded Pospisil blasting ATP Chairman and former ATP pro Andrea Gaudenzi as "a f--king a--hole" during the changeover as chair umpire Arnaud Gabas tried to calm the Canadian down.
Late in the opening set, an angry Pospisil spiked his Wilson racquet to the court with such force it dislodged the dampener prompting the ball girl behind him to dance out of the way. Pospisil cracked another racquet near his court-side seat, belted a ball out of Court 1, served underhanded and tanked the final game of the first set.
Serving at 3-5, Pospisil lost it incurring the verbal abuse point penalty on set point to lose the set.
During the ensuing changeover Gabas, trying to defuse the Canadian's anger, asked "What's happening with you?"
Pospisil, who launched the Professional Tennis Players Association with world No. 1 Novak Djokovic last summer, revealed his rage was rooted in ATP Chairman Gaudenzi railing at him during a players' meeting in Miami yesterday.
"An hour and a half the chair of the ATP f---ing screaming at me in a player meeting for trying to unite the players," Pospisil said to Gabas. "For an an hour and a half ... The leader of the ATP... F--king a--hole.... If you want to default me, I'll gladly sue this whole organization."
Credit Gabas, the same chair umpire who underwent surgery after Canadian Denis Shapovalov accidentally hit him in the eye with a ball he hit in anger during Davis Cup in 2017, for trying to play peacemaker and settle the situation as an irate Pospisil vented.
Though Pospisil did not do press after the match he took to Twitter to apologize for his behavior.
"I want to sincerely apologize for my behavior on the court in Miami earlier today," Pospisil posted on Twitter. "I disrespected the game I love and for that I am truly sorry."
In response to Pospisil's tweet, several suggested he apologize to chair umpire Gabas.
Clearly, Pospisil, who partnered Jack Sock to the 2014 Wimbledon doubles title and has earned a reputation as a thoughtful advocate for fellow players, is feeling frustrated and angry amid ongoing political in-fighting between ATP officials and the PTPA.
Former ATP Player Council member Pospisil and former ATP Player Council President Djokovic have invested a lot of time and energy trying to advocate on behalf of players and hit an emotional breaking point in this match ultimately losing to American qualifier McDonald 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.
“Tennis needs major change,” Pospisil told Mark Masters on TSN's Tennis in Depth last spring. “It wasn’t until I was in my mid-20s until I opened my eyes to how many issues there were in tennis. I felt like ‘Why aren’t we able to change anything as players. We have so much leverage if we actually decided to get organized and use it, because without the players there is no tennis tour."
Photo credit: @SofiaOpenTennis