Vasek Pospisil overcame sweltering heat and cramps to outlast Taiwanese No. 1 Lu Yen-hsun at the Atlanta Open on Wednesday.
Pospisil, the Canadian second seed, beat Lu 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 6-4. The match ended on Lu’s second double fault.
The temperature was 35oC, with a heat index of 38.
Photo: AFP
Pospisil looked unsteady on his feet after losing the second-set tiebreaker. He left the court following the set, prompting speculation he might not be able to finish the match.
“It was in my mind, but it’s not like me,” Pospisil said about the possibility of not returning for the final set. “I mean, I wasn’t feeling good at all... There aren’t conditions like these on the tour very much.”
Cramping in his legs caused him to fall to the court in the third set, but he continued without a delay.
Pospisil asked for a towel after almost every point and seemed to need the full breaks between games to catch his breath.
“I don’t know how I would have gotten through if I had not broken that last game,” he said.
In the doubles, Mardy Fish and Andy Roddick won their opener against Lu and Jonathan Marray of Britain on Wednesday as the Taiwanese lost for the second time in a day to bow out of the tournament.
Fish, who plans to retire after the US Open, lost 6-4, 6-4 in singles to Dudi Sela on Tuesday.
Roddick has taken a break from his retirement to play this week with Fish, his longtime friend.
“I had a blast out there,” Roddick said. “I was a little too excited. Mardy told me: ‘Andy, calm down.’”
Pospisil, playing in his first tournament since reaching the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, served 24 aces.
He was left with only singles on his schedule this week after a surprising early exit in doubles. Pospisil and Jack Sock, the defending champions and second seeds, lost to Colin Fleming and Gilles Muller on Tuesday night, leaving little recovery time for Pospisil before Wednesday’s early match.
Pospisil said the double match had no effect on his singles play.
Pospisil next plays fifth seed Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in the quarter-finals. Baghdatis beat Australia’s Sam Groth 7-5, 3-6, 6-3.
Top seed and two-time defending champion John Isner, who had a first-round bye, was due to play Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic yesterday. Stepanek beat Christopher Eubanks of Georgia Tech 6-2, 6-2.
Also on Wednesday, seventh seed Gilles Muller beat Jared Donaldson 6-3, 6-2. Muller next faces Japan’s Go Soeda, who upset fourth seed Adrian Mannarino of France 6-2, 6-4.
Bob and Mike Bryan, the top seed in the doubles, beat Groth and Chris Guccione 6-2, 6-1 in a match that lasted only 45 minutes.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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