MONTREAL―Thank goodness for Nick Kyrgios.
Or, at least, perhaps Tennis Canada can thank its lucky stars that Kyrgios decided to, ahem, speak his mind Wednesday night.
That’s become the focal point of attention for the Rogers Cup, at least for one day, as crude comments from Kyrgios that may have been aimed at opponent Stan Wawrinka went viral on social media overnight and has caused a tennis storm, with players and coaches from both tours weighing in to condemn the mercurial young Australian.
Less of a focal point, at least for one day, became the Canadian results this year at our national pro tennis showcase, which could be characterized as anywhere from disappointing to dreadful depending on your point of view.
In a larger sense, it was the thud heard ‘round the Canadian tennis world, the sound of Canadian tennis encountering harsh reality Wednesday night.
All the wonderful things that happened for the country’s male and female players over 2013 and 2014 — the triumphs in Davis Cup and Fed Cup, the
players skyrocketing up the world rankings, young Canadians turning into international stars at Grand Slam competitions — haven’t been erased, but 2015 has so far been a sobering reminder that we are far from tennis powerhouse yet.
Injuries have impeded the progress of our best players and kept them from competing for the country at times. Suddenly, the understanding that the depth isn’t quite there for Canada, not yet anyway, has hit home.
Eugenie Bouchard has crashed to earth, Milos Raonic hasn’t been able to stay healthy, the Davis and Fed Cup teams have been awful and, really, aside from Vasek Pospisil’s surprise quarter-final appearance at Wimbledon, there haven’t been nearly the exciting accomplishments for Tennis Canada in ’15 as there were in the two previous years.
Pospisil’s departure from the Rogers Cup on Wednesday night at the hands of American slugger John Isner left Canadian men and women with an unenviable 1-10 record in the tournament this year. That might have gone relatively unnoticed 20 years ago, but not anymore. Just as the performance of British players at Wimbledon, Aussies at the Australian Open and Americans at the U.S. Open receive extra scrutiny on the home front and are panned when they don’t measure up, so too now has the Rogers Cup become an event at which expectations for Canadian players have been ratcheted up.
We want to see players rise to this occasion.
This year, however, Pospisil was the only one of nine Canadian players to win a match. Bouchard was thumped again in the first round, while Raonic lost in the second after a first round bye. The other six players — Filip Peliwo, Frank Dancevic and Philip Bester on the men’s side, Gabriela Dabrowski, Carol Zhao and Francoise Abanda on the women’s — were all big underdogs and were dismissed in their first matches.
With only one Grand Slam competition left and no more ties for the Davis and Fed Cup teams, there really aren’t many opportunities for Canada to salvage this season.
What does this desultory 2015 mean? Well, it doesn’t mean that all the good work done by Tennis Canada in recent years has been undone, that’s for sure. In fact with some very talented teenagers coming, all signs suggest the national program is still working and producing and encouraging more Canadians to play the sport.
Raonic, Pospisil and Bouchard are all still young, all with their prime years ahead. Bouchard’s season has been the most negative, and it’s unclear whether she’ll be able to recover and get back to being a top 10 player. Right now, it’s not about winning tournaments for her, but about finding a way to win a single match.
It’s hard to judge Raonic’s season, and his defeat to Ivo Karlovic wasn’t entirely unexpected given the problems he’s had with a surgically repaired nerve in his toe. Pospisil, meanwhile, has made himself a factor again in men’s singles after picking up a Grand Slam doubles title in ’14, and he’s shown at times all the elements of moving much higher in the rankings.
Then again, Wednesday night was a frustrating reminder of how the total package still hasn’t quite come together.
He was 2-2 against the 6-foot-10 Isner coming into the match, and had beaten him two years ago here in a run to the Rogers Cup semis. But Isner remembered it too, remembered blowing a 4-1 third set lead, and was riding a nice little hot streak of his own after winning in Atlanta and getting to the final in Washington last weekend, beating Pospisil along the way.
The scene was electric at Uniprix Stadium, and no Canadian player invites the crowd into a match more than does Pospisil. But he started in nervously awful fashion, losing his serve in the opening game of the match while double-faulting three times. From then on, he was fighting from behind, and while he did win the second set after losing the first, he wasn’t able to match either Isner’s serving or his confidence.
“Confidence trumps everything,” said Isner afterwards.
Pospisil played a sloppy service game in the sixth game of the third set to fall behind 4-2, and then couldn’t convert on any of three break points in the next game as Isner deployed his massive serve en route to a 15-ace night.
The American was better, in the end, but one was also left with the impression that Pospisil let this one get away from him, a winnable match he didn’t win, something that has plagued him in his young career. He calls this event his U.S. Open, and his performance didn’t measure up.
So he was vanquished, and Canada was erased from the two-city tournament.
The most encouraging result for the national federation was probably the 18-year-old Abanda’s strong effort in a three-set loss to German veteran Andrea Petkovic, another building block to go with her strong Fed Cup effort earlier this season.
In general, Canadian tennis is down for the moment, but certainly not out. The highs of 2013 and ’14 have given way to the reality check of 2015.
Happily for Tennis Canada, Nick Kyrgios will likely keep attention off that for at least 24 hours.