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COUPE ROGERSAugust 10, 2013Vasek PospisilMONTREAL, QUEBEC M. RAONIC/V. Pospisil THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Can you balance the disappointment of the moment with the larger picture of how much you accomplished this week? Is it still too soon to try to do that? VASEK POSPISIL: It's not too soon. The last few minutes I've been cheering up a little bit. Definitely a tough loss, a tough loss for me. I wanted to win that one, for sure. I was really close. I had chances, then he played well in some moments. Others, I made a few mistakes I haven't been making this week and wouldn't normally make. But still obviously a great week. Have to look at it positively, for sure. Yeah, hopefully I can keep going from here. Q. Being on that court, as difficult as it seemed, looked like there were some nervous moments for you early and a little bit late. VASEK POSPISIL: I think early we were both pretty nervous. It wasn't the moment. It was the fact I was playing Milos. I think it's probably a little bit the same for him. We played each other so many times. We grew up together. I don't think either one wanted to lose. Maybe if it was somebody else, who knows, maybe I would have won, and I wouldn't have gotten a little bit nervous at the end. I think somebody had to lose it, and unfortunately for me it was me that lost it. Q. Because you have played Milos so many times and you know him so well, do you feel like you were able to force his game? His second serve was 80 miles an hour down the stretch. VASEK POSPISIL: Shows he was pretty tense, as well. But, I mean, yeah, it was tough for me. I felt like I was not dominating, but I was winning most of the points from the baseline once the rallies were started. I felt like was in a good position. Tiebreak got away from me a little bit there at the end, a couple loose points. But I went for it. No regrets. I didn't want to lose the match playing defensive. I tried to go for it even with the nerves that there were. This time it didn't work out. But that's the right way for me to go. Hopefully next time it will. Q. The handshake with Milos, didn't seem to be many words exchanged. Was it the emotion of the moment? VASEK POSPISIL: I mean, for sure the moment. No, I think it was a tough match for me, for everybody. I didn't think it was any different than any other match, the handshake. We obviously weren't going to start chatting it up. I mean, I looked him in the eye, gave him a normal handshake, and I didn't think there was anything wrong with it. Q. The emotions spilled over pretty strongly once you let it all out when it was done. VASEK POSPISIL: Yeah, for sure. Disappointed. I mean, I wasn't feeling too bad physically on the court. I'm exhausted now that it all kind of ended. The last 20 minutes, I'm feeling really tired. But, yeah, definitely it's a great week for me. Tomorrow morning I'll wake up and I'm sure I'll feel better about things. But, you know, I'm a guy that's very driven. Even when I do something that's unexpected or great for me, I always want to do better and win more. I wasn't satisfied going into today's match with the semifinal; I wanted to make the final. So disappointing. But for sure looking at the bigger picture, great week. Q. You're around 40 in the world. What does that mean to you? VASEK POSPISIL: It's amazing. It's amazing, for sure. Like I said yesterday, it was the goal I had at the beginning of the year, to make top 50. That was like my big goal. Here I am, I'll be 40 next week. Yeah, very happy with that, for sure. Q. You had such great momentum in the second set. There was about an eight‑minute layoff for the bathroom break. Did that hurt your rhythm at all? VASEK POSPISIL: No, I don't think so. I mean, I was expecting him to try to throw me off or something (laughter). But, no, it didn't change anything. He came out, he was serving great. I was playing just as well, but he was just serving a little bit better in the third set when he needed to. So, yeah, no, it didn't throw me off. Q. Do you feel like this is the beginning of a rivalry, that you guys might start meeting in tournaments? VASEK POSPISIL: Yeah, I mean, I hope so. For my sake I hope we'll see each other a lot more. That will mean I'll keep up the good form and stuff. I don't see why not because I've been doing really well the last couple months. I've been winning a lot of matches. Just started gaining momentum coming into this tournament. I felt like already at the French Open I was starting to play some really good tennis. Got a little unlucky there in the French Open. Then through Wimbledon, Bogota, the other ATP events I played, I felt like I was playing a good level, playing close to having a little breakthrough. I feel like it came here. I'll just try to keep going. Next time I won't shave before the match. I shouldn't have shaved this morning (laughter). I knew it. Q. Are you superstitious? VASEK POSPISIL: No. I mean, a little bit. Every athlete is superstitious. But I shaved the fuzz a little this morning (smiling). Q. Why? VASEK POSPISIL: I don't know. Q. Wanted to look good for the cameras? VASEK POSPISIL: I shave during tournaments. But I didn't shave the last two days, three days. I was like, Okay, I'll shave this morning. Q. Nuts‑and‑bolts question about next week. When are you going to Cincinnati? It's Simon in the draw. How do you feel about playing him? He had an injury he was dealing with here this week. VASEK POSPISIL: I'm flying tomorrow morning. Try to get there as soon as I can. But rest tonight. Don't do any crazy red‑eye flights like I did coming here. I'll try to rest up, maybe take a day off tomorrow, or maybe just hit lightly for 30 minutes. Then a normal day of practice on Monday. I think we'll be playing Tuesday. Q. What did you learn about the stage, this moment, the grand stage, center court, at the semifinal level of a 1000? VASEK POSPISIL: It was more I learned I have the level to play with these guys. It's not like I won one match. Like in the years before, I would win a match on pure adrenaline. This year I had good wins. I won three matches. Nikolay obviously pulled out, but I had a lot of good wins.  I had good wins in the weeks leading up to this. I feel like now it's a little bit different this time around. I feel like, you know, I'm much more confident in my abilities and where my game is right now. Q. Can you take us through match point. You drive it to the corner, he gets across, hits a rocket. Do you feel like it's a volley you should have made or was his shot too good? VASEK POSPISIL: I think I should have put away the first one, that's for sure. I saw him running there. I already made up my mind. I should have angled it better. I hit it basically straight. That was the first thing. I kind of stopped. Like my legs kind of froze for a second there. I saw him get to it. I still had a play on the next volley if I was quick enough to get there. I was a split second slow. I obviously had no play once it was behind me. Q. You're from Vernon, grew up there. You created a bit of buzz over the week. Probably the greatest athletic achievement to come out of that town. Are you aware of the interest and excitement you created back there? VASEK POSPISIL: Yeah, I mean, I'm not really sure. I haven't been up to date with what's been going on there. I get a lot of messages on social media. I have a lot of support. It's always great knowing people are aware of what I'm doing over there 'cause obviously Vernon, I grew up there. Obviously it's my hometown. It's a special thing for me. I grew up playing on cracked high school courts with my dad. Yeah, hopefully something good for the community will come out of this. THE MODERATOR: Questions in French. Q. So how would you sum up this week? VASEK POSPISIL: It was an extremely good week, even if it's tough losing that match. I must remain positive. I won four matches. I made the semifinal. I am top 50. It's incredible. I really have to find something positive from all this. Q. Can you explain what happened on the particular point where Milos won the point when you were at the net. VASEK POSPISIL: I could have played that volley a bit better. I could have played it anywhere to make the point, but I just stopped a second and was too late. This particular point did not decide the whole match. Q. How can you explain that you were more nervous playing Milos than you were about the moment? VASEK POSPISIL: I believe we were both nervous during the match. We played so many times against each other. We grew up together. We are both members of the Davis Cup team. So there was a lot more going on than if I had played another player. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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