Canadian Vasek Pospisil falls to France’s Gilles Simon at Australian Open

MELBOURNE, Australia – Canadian Vasek Pospisil has been eliminated from the Australian Open, falling in four sets to France’s Gilles Simon on Monday in first-round action.

The 25-year-old Pospisil was beaten by his 14th-ranked opponent, 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 2-6, 4-6, in a match that lasted two hours, 47 minutes.

Unforced errors cost the Vancouver native heavily — Pospisil had 55 of them compared to just 18 for Simon.

Pospisil used his powerful serve to win the first set in 45 minutes. He held an 8-0 edge in aces but committed 16 unforced errors.

Trailing 3-1 in the second set, Pospisil called a medical timeout and went through stretching exercises on his lower body with a trainer, but returned to play shortly after. Simon went on to win the set in 52 minutes as Pospisil made 17 more unforced errors compared to the Frenchman’s three.

Simon needed only 31 minutes to win the third set and 39 minutes to take the fourth, which ended when Pospisil returned a serve long on match point.

Pospisil held the edge in aces 19-2, and winners 45-12, but was undone by his own mistakes.

Later Monday, Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., will face Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic in first-round play on the women’s side. Meanwhile, Milos Raonic, of Thornhill, Ont., opens his tournament against France’s Lucas Pouille on Tuesday.