PARIS — Spain’s Tommy Robredo defeated Vancouver’s Vasek Pospisil 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (5) on Tuesday in a first-round match at the Paris Masters tennis tournament.
Robredo needed just over two hours to earn the win over Pospisil, who had 13 aces in his final singles match of the season. Pospisil earned a break in the final set to go ahead 3-2, then held serve took a 4-2 advantage with an ace.
But Robredo recorded a break of his own, then held serve to tie the match 4-4. Pospisil then took the set into the tie-breaker with yet another ace.
After falling behind 4-2, Pospisil saved two match points before losing on the third after sending a return long.
"It was frustrating for sure, he played well," said Pospisil. "I played a good match after the first set, I had a high lever.
"We were both pretty tired at end. He had a tough week last week (losing in Valencia final) and I’ve been going eight weeks in a row. In the circumstances we were both playing well. He’s a good fighter and got the better of me
"But I’m just happy that I played a better match than last week (a straight-sets, second-round loss to Grigor Dimitrov at Swiss Indoors). Today I felt more like myself, competing well and playing a good match."
Pospisil will now turn his attention to doubles as he and American Jack Sock, the ’14 Wimbledon champions, are fighting to qualify for next month’s eight-team World Tour Finals in London.
"We’ll go out there and do our best," he said. "I’ll try to forget this loss and turn to doubles."
On Sunday, Pospisil and Serbian Nenad Zimonjic won the doubles title at the Swiss Indoors event. Zimonjic is also a former partner of Toronto’s Daniel Nestor.
In other singles action, Spain’s Fernando Verdasco advanced to the third round by dispatching 15th-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. Also, Jeremy Chardy of France defeated Kenny De Schepper of France 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4), and Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay advanced when Leonardo Mayer of Argentina retired because of a back injury while trailing 7-6 (3), 1-0.