Pospisil upset in second round of Cincinnati tournament by Goffin

MASON, Ohio – Canadian Vasek Pospisil wasted four match points before losing to David Goffin in the second round of Western & Southern Open on Wednesday.

Pospisil lost 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 (6) to the Belgian qualifier who’s ranked 80th in the world. Pospisil, a native of Vernon, B.C., had risen to 40th after reaching last week’s Rogers Cup semifinals against Milos Raonic in Montreal.

Pospisil’s prediction that he would have a tough time with Goffin proved to be correct, despite 13 aces and the Belgian’s nine double faults.

Pospisil fell on a late break in the opening set but roared back to sweep the second.

The third set was tight, with Pospisil grabbing a 6-5 lead on a break and moving into position to serve out victory. But the outcome was never secure as Goffin saved a match point in the next game and then forced Pospisil to salvage a break point before finally dropping to 6-6 on a forehand that went long.

In the tiebreaker, Pospisil had three more match points and failed to convert on all of them. Goffin seized his opportunity with his first match point, converting it to send Pospisil out after nearly 2 1/2 hours.

Raonic, the 12th seed from Thornhill, Ont., was aiming for third round later with a match against Janko Tipsarevic. In the women’s draw, Eugenie Bouchard from Westmount, Que., was taking on top seed and Toronto Rogers Cup champion Serena Williams.

Also Wednesday, Wimbledon champion Andy Murray opened pursuit of his third Western & Southern Open championship with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Mikhail Youzhny.

The second-seeded Murray, who beat Novak Djokovic in the 2008 and 2011 finals and in the Wimbledon final in July, needed one hour nine minutes to improve to 4-0 in his career against the 25th-ranked Youzhny.

Murray, who is also the defending U.S. Open champion, was coming off a third-round loss last week in Montreal, his first action since becoming the first British male to win Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936.