By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday February 12, 2020
Former World No.25 Vasek Pospisil is experiencing quite the resurgence in Europe this winter, and it is powered by a familiar breakfast item that is dearly loved in his country: maple syrup.
Pospisil, currently ranked 104 but set to climb inside the Top 100 for the first time since October of 2018 next week, was seen drinking the stuff during changeovers of his stunning upset of top-seeded Daniil Medvedev on Wednesday in Rotterdam, but the Canadian’s fine form is about a lot more than maple syrup.
29-year-old Pospisil says he hasn’t felt this good physically since 2014.
“It’s been five years, probably,” Pospisil said after his 6-4 6-3 victory over the Russian. “My back hasn’t felt like this since I had that injury in 2014 and I’m moving better than I have the last five years for sure. That’s probably the biggest change in the last two months.”
Pospisil was all over the court on Wednesday but he did his most impressive work from the service stripe. When he fell behind 0-40 at 4-4 in the third against Medvedev he promptly fired three consecutive aces to get back to deuce. He would not face another break point the rest of the way against the World No. 5.
“I was the big underdog so I was also a bit relaxed and confident, which is a good combo to have going into a match,” said last week’s Montpellier runner-up.
The victory marks Pospisil’s third career Top 5 win and his first since 2017.
He will face Serbia’s Filip Krajinovic in the second round in the night session on Thursday in Rotterdam.
The maple syrup will be present for sure. After his recent experiment with the "sweet taste of success" Pospisil plans to keep it up.
He says the trend got started by accident. He was recently low on energy gels at a tournament and his physio recommended that he try maple syrup.
“I travel with maple syrup, I use it religiously in the mornings, and then I was low on energy gels,” he said. “My physio was like ‘Marathon runners use it.” I said ‘Oh wow,’ and then I said ‘I’ll use it for the [final against Gael Monfils in Montpellier]’ and I loved the taste and it gave me good energy. I’m Canadian so I should be using it, right?”
Auger-Aliassime Makes it a Double for Canada
There was no maple syrup but a lot of the same high energy from 19-year-old Felix Auger-Aliassime on Wednesday night. The World No.21 eased past Grigor Dimitrov 6-4 6-2 in 77 minutes to book his first quarterfinal at Rotterdam and make it a night session sweep for Canada.
Auger-Aliassime broke four times on six tries to improve to 2-0 lifetime against the Bulgarian.
In other Day 3 action at Rotterdam defending champion Gael Monfils sailed past Joao Sousa 6-3 6-2, while fourth-seeded David Goffin toppled Robin Haase 3-6 7-6(5) 6-4. Monfils will face Gilles Simon, who defeated Mikhail Kukushkin in three tight sets.
Dan Evans defeated Karen Khachanov, 4-6 6-3 6-4 and Pablo Carreno Busta topped compatriot Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4 2-6 7-6(4).