[FormerRafaFan]

Wow, great thread! I think Vasek has a lot of potential. He is just a late bloomer, well, not late, but later than Milos.. but I think his game is finally starting to come together now. He'll only get better the more matches he plays. It's the right step to take though.. he couldn't play futures for much longer if he wanted to really move up the rankings. He should definitely focus on the challengers!

 

[FormerRafaFan]

Too easy today for Vasek 63 61.

Awesome win! Who is he playing against today? Well.. hopefully he'll win that too

 

[FormerRafaFan]

Wow Vasek! Proud of you! He's moving upwards and doing much better than I excpeted him to. Hopefully he'll continue this good form! And I agree with the rest of you guys. I think Niemeyer is one hell of a coach. Hopefully if Vasek is doing better Tennis Canada will see that and give him the support he needs, maybe make him a part of the NTC. But yeah, he needs to show he's worthy of it first, hopefully he'll continue like this and it won't be too long until that happens!

I think Frank is showing some progress too. Frank and Vasek and even PLD are all doing good right now. Peter on the other hand.. Not so much!

Kinda off topic here, but.. Vasek doesn't have a twitter acount, has he? Would like to follow him!

 

[FormerRafaFan]

I am not sure it is fair to say that Vasek hasn't had the support of Tennis Canada. My sense was that for a long time he chose to go his own way with his father as coach (you have to believe he could have joined the NTC when it opened, if he had wanted to). Vasek was invited early on to the Davis Cup team. At a certain point he got displaced by Milos, but in retrospect, that was probably a fair decision, based on type of game and also mental suitability for playing important matches (Vasek has shown some tendency to falter when he gets close to the finish line).

Tennis Canada has been trying to encourage young players to make a base in Montreal. Milos and Rebecca went along with that, but maybe it didn't suit Vasek. Now it seems like he is at least spending a good bit of time there.

In short, I am suggesting that maybe it is Vasek changing his thinking, more than Tennis Canada.

Anyway, great week for Vasek. Hopefully this will inspire him for a productive tour in Korea.

Yeah, I think you're right. I shouldn't even be commenting on Tennis Canada or the NTC because I don't know fully what's going on. Kinda hard for me to follow Canadian tennis from up here in Norway, even though I do try

I second your last line though! great week for Vasek Congrats to him for a new career high too! My hope is that he can crack the top 200 this year and top 100 next year, that would be the ultimate progress imo. Anything faster than that is of course great too, but that is my goal for him. It will be interesting to see how fast he's moving up the rankings.

 

[FormerRafaFan]

Too bad he lost the SF! At least he reached the SF though, it was a good result for him. It seems like he's playing well! Hopefully he'll continue his good form in the upcoming challengers too

 

[FormerRafaFan]

Yeah.. I second most posters here. I'm glad he won his first match, but I really doubt he'll win over ERV.

 

[FormerRafaFan]

I don't think he'll be able to win this match. It's just too soon for him. I can imagine he'll do better a year from now, when he's played more matches in challengers and hopefully have a better ranking.

 

[FormerRafaFan]

Nice result for Vasek, even though he lost. Hopefully he'll do good in the challenger next week!

 

[FormerRafaFan]

My goal for Vasek now is to crack the top 200. It shouldn't be too difficult if he just continues his good form as of lately.

 

[FormerRafaFan]

There were way fewer posters, mostly just me, Lee, d_s and valexie03. There were only like 4 or 5 posts a week. No excitement for Bester, he rarely played and when he did, his results weren't great. I was a huge Peter fan so I guess I created some excitement for him and the South American posters loved him, thought he would be really good.

I've only been a member here for a little over a year, but I think there's always been a lot of activity on the Canadian Players thread. And lets face it, the nationality with the most posters here on MTF is Canada. I see Canadian flags EVERYWHERE on this forum, even more than American flags.. not that it's a bad thing, I love your country

 

[FormerRafaFan]

Way to go Vasek

Good luck in your next match too!

 

[FormerRafaFan]

Too bad, but it's a good learning experience for him. It's sad, but the most experienced player usually wins in a situation like this.. and that's exactly what happened here too. He will handle rain delays better in the future, I'm sure. It was unfortunate, but he has a new chance to make it deep in his next challenger. I believe in him. He's had some great results lately!

 

[FormerRafaFan]

I don't think it will be long before he is the Canada Number 2

I agree

And I really don't think people should be too harsh on him because of what happened. It was a close match, but he lost out, it happens. The rain delay was unfortunate, but usually the most experienced player is better at staying focus and not lose focus because of a rain delay, it's not that easy for the inexperienced youngsters, but he'll learn. He'll learn how to deal with it. He just needs some more experience!

 

[FormerRafaFan]

:lol:

Sokk telling us not to overreact.

Irony at its best.

Well.. I wasn't telling you not to overreact. I was just saying don't be too harsh on him. I know it sucks he lost, he really should have won it, so I understand you guys being mad. However, it's not unusual to see this kind of outcome after a rain delay. Experience really pays off, because the youngsters tend to lose focus, which was exactly what happened here.

 

[FormerRafaFan]

Good luck Vasek!

 

[FormerRafaFan]

I just checked the rankings, and Vasek has cracked the top 200. That is amazing! When is the last time Canada had two players inside of the top 200? And Bester and PLD ain't doing too bad either!

 

[FormerRafaFan]

I knew he would lose to Ward.. I just knew it. Oh well.. a SF in Vancouver is a good result. I'm not too disappointed.

 

[FormerRafaFan]

He says he's happy to be in Montreal for the Rogers Cup and keen to get out on the [indistinct] and maybe win a few matches.

Nice to see that he is really quite fluent in French.

Hm.. didn't sound fluent to me, but then again.. I am not French speaking. I had French two years in high school. I really tried to learn it, but it was impossible. It was to difficult, too different from Norwegian. And today I only speak like two words of French. I love the language, and I do wish I was able to speak French, but I don't think I'll ever be able to learn it. I actually think Spanish is much, much easier to learn than French. I am self tought in Spanish, but today I know more words in Spanish than in French, and I had French classes two years in high school! lol

Anyway.. enough about that. I am so proud of Vasek! I heard he's now up to 155, which is a career high for him. Would be fun if he could tap the top 150 soon, and I have a feeling he will! I doubt he'll do much damage in Montreal, I think he'll lose R1, I think it's too early for him to win matches on the top level yet. But he seems to be coming along great in challengers, he's playing a lot more consistent now, so that's great! I hope he continues his great form on the challenger level. I think it's too soon for him to start playing qualies for bigger ATP tournaments. I know Milos did it when he was ranked around 150, and actually managed to qualify for AO and did some damage in the MD there. But Milos was a special case, he was extremely talented. I think Vasek needs a bit more time to develop as a player and mature, though I do like what I've seen from him lately. He seems to be more confident and consistent. His play seems to be coming together, and he seems mentally strong too. But he still has a long way to go yet of course. But I like his progress for sure!

 

[FormerRafaFan]

I haven't really seen Vasek's game.. some said he has an ok (but nothing special fh), but his bh and ROS is basically non-existant. Do you guys agree with that? Is he really a bad returner? I thought people in here said he was a better returner than Milos? hmm..

 

[FormerRafaFan]

You did watch him play Roger, probably the best server on tour.

actually.. I didn't watch his match against Roger. I know he still has some work to do, it doesn't surprise me that people are commenting on his game and what he's lacking. I just thought he was a good returner, but I was reading the GM, and people there said he must improve his ROS.

Anyway.. lets just hope he will continue his great form as of lately, and continue to improve his game too. He had a huge breakthrough here with his first win, so congrats to him on that! I can't wait to see more of Vasek in the time to come