Long-lost footage from Wimbledon 2008, Vasek Pospisil’s first Wimbledon.
After starting the year at the Australian Open warming up Roger Federer for his semifinal match against Novak Djokovic (Fed Fans need no reminding of the outcome of that one), young Vasek Pospisil, a few days after his 18th birthday, did the same for veteran Frenchman Arnaud Clément before his singles quarterfinal at Wimbledon.
Pospisil had lost in the first round of the junior boys’ singles to an even younger kid, a promising American by the name of … Ryan Harrison.
Here’s what it looked like (please forgive the cinéma-vérité camera work – 2008 was the infant phase of Open Court video).
But there is editorial commentary from yours truly!
And the best part comes at the end, when Wimbledon’s legendary public-address guy announces the impending doom of the weather forecast as if he were reciting Shakespeare.
The guy wasn’t there this year – and this was a MAJOR disappointment. He rocked.
We thought the video was lost forever. But a little computer file cleanup revealed the pieces, which required a little converting, and we put ’em together.
At 30, that was Clément’s best career effort at Wimbledon, even though he was ranked No. 145 going in. He had a pretty sweet draw all the way through, and all he had to do was defeat Rainer Schuettler of Germany (then ranked No. 94) to make the semis.
Unfortunately, the Pospisil jinx struck again; Clément went down 63, 57, 76 (6), 67 (7), 86 in an incredibly tight one.
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