Vasek Pospisil is a player that proved many times that he can play really well and he is a former Top 25 member of the ATP Rankings.
Last year, the 32-years-old Canadian lost 19 matches out of 27 he played and his rankings dropped a lot. This year, he got back to winning ways and also his interaction with Novak Djokovic at the 2022 Tel Aviv Open helped Vasek Pospisil to gain some confidence.
The two players that met in the quarterfinals in Israel are very good friends and therefore the match was special for both of them. While speaking on the Match Point Canada podcast, Pospisil remembered his meeting with the 21-time Grand Slam champion, when he said:
"The last couple of weeks, especially in Tel Aviv, I was playing at a really high level," Pospisil said. "Played a great match against Novak, where I thought I was quite competitive and it is always tough as he is a really good friend of mine and so I had to battle the fact that he is a good buddy and one of the feared players in the history of our sport."
He also spoke about how he had to change his approach to be able to fight his good friend as well as how Djokovic gave him even more confidence after the match.
"I had to turn all of that into going out there and believing that I could win, which I managed to do, which isn't always the case. I think it is also a testament to the fact that I have been playing better and working hard and I wanted to win that match," Pospisil said.
"I think the tennis showed it and he's super gracious and said some really nice things to me after the match and gave me lot of confidence as well."
After the quarterfinal run, Pospisil played Challenger in France where he lost in the final and then he moved to Germany where he managed to beat two opponents already and so the shift in confidence is visible also through his results.
0 Comments