Pospisil overcomes physical woes, Gerasimov in IW qualies

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INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – The only Canadian taking part in the Indian Wells qualifying managed to get through on Tuesday.

But Vasek Pospisil, seeded No. 20, had to overcome a first-set loss, and some issues with his left knee (and also his right arm – wrist or perhaps elbow) as he defeated Egor Gerasimov 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

He won just three more points than his opponent overall.

Pospisil, currently ranked No. 129, had his left knee worked on after getting a break in the second set.

And in the third set, he was shaking off something in his right arm.

In the end, once he secured the break in the last two sets, he let things go a little bit on return, focusing his energy in holding serve to close it out.

And that, he did.

Plenty of VP support

As usual at Indian Wells, with all the Western Canadian snowbirds on hand, Pospisil had plenty of support from the crowd.

It had to help.

Gerasimov, ranked No. 148 but whose career high two years ago was No. 65, can be an extremely dangerous customer on any given day.

On this day, he seemed to have a hard time figuring out why he was losing.

For the most part, it felt like he hit far too much to Pospisil’s much stronger forehand.

Here’s what it looked like.

Pospisil has another tough task on Wednesday as he faces an in-form Thanasi Kokkinakis.

Kokkinakis, who has been laid low (very low) by injuries the last few years, won a tournament in Adelaide to start the season. And he returned to Davis Cup action last week.