Vasek Pospisil is filled with memories of disappointments in the French Open. He’s been a picture of mediocrity over the past few years at Roland Garros. Will his run of early round ousters end today by defeating Tomas Berdych? Or will Berdych earn his first career victory over Pospisil?
Pospisil appeared to have turned a corner in his career when he reached the quarterfinals of last year’s Wimbledon. But what happened since was a series of losses that caused Pospisil to drop in the ranking from 29th to 47th in the world. So far this year, Pospisil is just 4-12, losing lost five of his six previous matches.
That stretch includes a first round loss to Andreas Seppi in the ATP & WTA Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome early this month. For all his late troubles, there remains a positive Pospisil can draw encouragement from heading into his showdown with Berdych.
See, Pospisil is 2-0 in his career against Berdych, though both wins were on the hard court. He beat Berdych in Washington in 2014 (6-2 6-4) and in the Canadian Masters in 2013 (7-5 2-6 7-6(5)).
Betting on Tomas Berdych
As mentioned earlier, Berdych has yet to against Pospisil but that obviously wasn’t enough reason for bookmakers to make him the underdog in today’s matchup. After all, Berdych is ranked eighth in the world.
Another reason why Berdych is the clear favorite against Pospisil is because of the apparent struggles of the Canadian on clay. Pospisil has yet to win on clay in ATP tournaments thus far in his career. Pospisil’s 1-15 lifetime record on the red stuff also points to a likely sad performance against Berdych. Moreover, Pospisil hasn’t moved past the first round in each of the last five times he participated in the French Open.
As for Berdych, he’s been to the semifinals of the French Open in 2010 and has made it to the fourth round five times in 12 French Opens played. The Czech is 144-80 on clay.
