{"id":28682,"date":"2025-07-28T23:58:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T23:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/28682\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T23:58:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T23:58:11","slug":"atp-player-says-hes-very-relieved-after-he-decides-to-fully-retire-from-tennis-at-the-canadian-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/28682\/","title":{"rendered":"ATP player says he’s ‘very relieved’ after he decides to fully retire from tennis at the Canadian Open"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Canadian Open may have only just started, but already we have seen a former Grand Slam champion knocked out, and having retired from the sport completely.<\/p>\n

Although this was always the plan of Vasek Pospisil: to call time on his career in his homeland.<\/p>\n

After all, he has enjoyed a long and impressive career within tennis, with his crowning achievement naturally being his Wimbledon<\/a> doubles title in 2014.<\/p>\n

There, he partnered with Jack Sock to dethrone the legendary defending champions Bob and Mike Bryan, upsetting the odds as they toppled the top seed.<\/p>\n

\"VasekPhoto by Mert Alper Dervis\/Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Since then, injury and inconsistency have plagued a once-promising career, with Toronto marking the perfect place for the 35-year-old to retire.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, he seems completely at peace with the decision too.<\/p>\n

Vasek Pospisil admits he\u2019s happy to be retiring from tennis<\/p>\n

After all, he spoke at length after his first-round defeat at the hands of Facundo Bagnis, which frustratingly also saw him pick up another injury.<\/p>\n

He began his press conference by admitting: \u201cI\u2019m very relieved (laughing), to be honest with you. No, I\u2019m a bit relieved. Yeah, I wasn\u2019t sure how I was going to feel after the match. I was thinking that I was ready to retire and that, but now that it\u2019s done I know that I\u2019m very relieved, and I\u2019m happy that it\u2019s in some ways behind me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I could have not pulled my muscle in the fifth game of the match and enjoyed the match a bit more. But, yeah, it was still very special to finish here in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then asked to delve a little into his emotional state, Pospisil continued: \u201cYeah, you know what, it was a tough week, a very tough week. Just so many people coming in, and a lot of, it was just hard to process everything that was going on for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing into the match, I was really, really nervous, probably more than most times that I step on a Centre Court. I don\u2019t know if it was the nerves being the reason for the pulling my muscle, I\u2019m sure it played a big role in that, I was very tense. I knew I just needed to play 5, 10 more minutes to loosen up a little bit.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, then it\u2019s pretty tough for the opponent, when he sees that I\u2019m not really moving, it\u2019s tough to play high level when you\u2019re playing against somebody that\u2019s injured.<\/p>\n

\u201cI snuck out that second set. He didn\u2019t play a great second set. I played a couple good shots when I needed to. Ultimately, it\u2019s kind of tough to win a match like that on one leg (smiling). Of course, I wasn\u2019t going to retire or pull out, I had to finish my last match (laughing).\u201d<\/p>\n

This came after Denis Shapovalov admitted he was sad that Pospisil was retiring<\/a> when asked before the event began.<\/p>\n

Vasek Pospisil explains what is next for him after retiring from tennis<\/p>\n

Pospisil was far from finished there, unsurprisingly, as the Canadian Open<\/a> media room filled up with Canadians seeking to ask their retiring compatriot some final questions.<\/p>\n

One reporter was curious about what the future might now hold for the man with seven career doubles titles, who turned professional all the way back in 2007.<\/p>\n

\"VasekPhoto by ANDREW COWIE\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

He replied: \u201cI think, I mean, it\u2019s what I know best, and it is my passion. I think if I stay involved in tennis it would\u2026 two things: Definitely it would be part-time, and it would be for Canadian tennis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if I have it in me to be around the sport too much, unless it\u2019s really to help, to give back to the community or juniors that are maybe less privileged, that don\u2019t have opportunities, because I kind of can connect with, you know, if they\u2019re good people.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, do I want to stay in tennis on a full-time basis? Absolutely not. I have mixed emotions when it comes to this sport. It takes a lot out of you. It\u2019s a really, really tough sport, physically and mentally, and at some point you burn out. So, you know, at least I did. So I\u2019ll be, you know, we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, asked if he has any advice for the youngsters currently on tour, he finished by stating: \u201cAdvice to young player that\u2019s starting on tour? Oh, okay. There\u2019s a lot of advice to give. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say probably something they don\u2019t, I mean, it would be more like a reminder than advice, but I would say just, you know, really pay attention to the people that you have around you. If you have good people, keep them close. Work hard, regardless of whether you\u2019re in a peak or a valley or whatever it is, you have to just keep the work ethic the same. Even if you\u2019re playing well, don\u2019t get overconfident, because there\u2019s tons of people that are going to pass you if you loosen up a little bit.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think just, you know, at the end of the day, it\u2019s the work. If you put in the work, and you have good people around you, then you\u2019ll succeed.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Canadian Open may have only just started, but already we have seen a former Grand Slam champion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747,27319],"class_list":{"0":"post-28682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-vasek-pospisil"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}