SOME people have a mid-life crisis, Canada’s Vasek Pospisil is having a mid-career spree as the 29-year-old’s remarkable past couple of months returning from injury continued yesterday with a stunning 67-minute rout of world number five, Daniil Medvedev.

The Russian was seeded number one at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, but headed home early after a stunning display from the Canadian. Pospisil was meant to go through qualifying for the tournament – currently ranked 104th in the world – but was granted a special exemption to the main draw due to performing so well in the tournament prior and therefore missed the start of qualifying. In other words, he was too busy stunning other top 20 players in Denis Shapovalov and David Goffin in Montpellier on his way to the final to make an appearance at qualifying. The win against Medvedev was his fourth over a top 20 player since the Davis Cup Finals last year, and the Canadian’s ranking continues to soar.

He won a whopping 81 per cent of his first serve points, broke three times to one and capitalised off his opponents’ second serve with a 50 per cent winning record. Having missed last year with injury, Pospisil seems to have returned to form and currently sits at 97th in the world with no points to defend at nearly any tournament on the horizon. A best result for the Canadian if he was to somehow win the tournament, would be a top 50 place, though there is still a long way to go and plenty of quality players remaining in the draw.

In other results, Montpellier title winner, Gael Monfils started his title defence with a 6-3 6-2 regulation win over Portugal’s Joao Sousa. He was joined in the second round by fourth seed, Belgian David Goffin who downed Dutch wildcard Robin Haase in three sets 3-6 7-6 6-4. Frenchman, Gilles Simon also moved through to the next round with a 7-6 3-6 6-3 battle against Mikhail Kukushkin.

In the Round of 16, Pablo Carreno Busta upset his highly rated compatriot, Roberto Bautista Agut in three sets, 6-4 2-6 7-6. In other results, Great Britain’s Dan Evans had an impressive win over Russia’s Karen Khachanov 4-6 6-3 6-4, while and Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime got revenge on Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov for ousting his compatriot, Denis Shapovalov with a 6-4 6-2 win.

Round of 16 Results:

P. Carreno Busta (ESP) defeated [6] R. Bautisa Agut (ESP) 6-4 2-6 7-6
D. Evans (GBR) defeated K. Khachanov (RUS) 4-6 6-3 6-4
F. Auger-Aliassime (CAN) defeated G. Dimitrov (BLR) 6-4 6-2

Round of 32 Results:

V. Pospisil (CAN) defeated [1] D. Medvedev (RUS) 6-4 6-3
[3] G. Monfils (FRA) defeated J. Sousa (POR) 6-3 6-2
[4] D. Goffin (BEL) defeated [WC] R. Haase (NED) 3-6 7-6 6-4
G. Simon (FRA) defeated [Q] M. Kukushkin (KAZ) 7-6 3-6 6-3