2014 Wimbledon doubles winner Vasek Pospisil to retire
Canadian Vasek Pospisil, who won the men's doubles title at Wimbledon in 2014, announced he will retire after this week's Canadian Open in Toronto.
Pospisil, 35, received a main-draw wild card entry. The tournament begins Sunday.
'It's never easy making a decision like this,' Pospisil said in a post to X. 'Tennis has been a huge part of my life, but it has become clear, both mentally and physically, that it's the right time to step away. I feel incredibly grateful to have had the career I've had, especially coming from a small town where this dream once felt so far away.'
Pospisil racked up career earnings of $7.2 million, per the ATP, and recorded ranking highs of No. 4 in doubles (2015) and No. 25 in singles (2014).
Pospisil partnered with Jack Sock to claim the Wimbledon doubles title. He was also part of Canada's Davis Cup-winning team in 2022.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Videos in hockey players' trial highlight misconceptions about consent: law experts
As five former Canadian world junior hockey players await a ruling in their sexual assault trial, legal experts say videos shown in court of the complainant saying she was OK with what had happened highlight a broader misunderstanding of consent and sexual assault law in Canada. Two cellphone videos in which the woman says she's 'OK with this' and that 'it was all consensual' were presented as evidence during the trial of Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube, and Callan Foote. All five men have pleaded not guilty to sexual assault after an encounter in a London, Ont., hotel room in the early morning hours of June 19, 2018. McLeod has also pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of being a party to the offence of sexual assault. Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia is expected to deliver her ruling on Thursday in the case that saw consent emerge as a central issue. Prosecutors have argued the complainant did not voluntarily agree to the sexual acts that took place, nor did the players take reasonable steps to confirm her consent. The Crown has dismissed the videos taken of the woman that night as 'token lip service box checking,' arguing she felt she had no choice but to go along when a group of men she didn't know started asking her to do things inside the hotel room. Defence lawyers, meanwhile, repeatedly challenged the complainant's credibility and reliability as a witness, arguing she was an active participant in the sexual activity and made up the allegations because she didn't want to take responsibility for her choices that night. Video statements such as the short clips shown in this trial aren't necessarily evidence of consent, said University of Ottawa law professor Daphne Gilbert. 'Legally speaking, they have very little relevance because consent has to be ongoing and contemporaneous with the sexual activity and you have to be consenting to every single thing that is happening to you,' said Gilbert, who researches sexual violence and abuse in Canadian sports. 'There's no such thing as advance consent. And there's no thing as after-the-fact consent, either. So just because you say, 'Yeah, it was all consensual' doesn't mean that makes it so.' Lisa Dufraimont, a law professor at York University, said such videos could also be seen as hearsay because they don't contain statements made under oath in court. 'If the complainant got on the stand at the trial and testified that they consented at the time, that would be evidence that they consented at the time,' said Dufraimont, whose research focuses on evidence issues in sexual assault cases. But she said the videos could be used for other legal arguments, including those that may rely on a description of how a defendant or complainant was acting at the time. 'It may be that if the video is taken close in time to the alleged sexual assault, that the video shows something about the person's level of intoxication or their emotional state, which may or may not be consistent with what they later reported their emotional state was at the time,' said Dufraimont. During the trial, the Crown argued that the videos shown in court weren't proof that the complainant voluntarily agreed to what had taken place. 'The recording of that video is not getting her consent to anything. Everything's already happened,' prosecutor Meaghan Cunningham said about the video in which the woman said it was 'all consensual,' adding that consent must be communicated for each specific act at the time it takes place. Only one of the accused, Hart, took the stand in his own defence, and court heard or watched interviews three of the others — McLeod, Formenton and Dube — gave police in 2018. People accused of crimes are not required to testify, nor is the defence required to call any evidence, as it is up to the Crown to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. In McLeod's 2018 interview with police, he told a detective that he recorded one of the videos because he was 'just kind of worried something like this might happen.' Thursdays Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter. On the stand, Hart testified that consent videos aren't unusual for professional athletes. Gilbert, the University of Ottawa law professor, said Canada in general still has work to do in educating young people about consent, especially in sports. She's involved in efforts to teach youth about consent through school programming, but said professional hockey in particular is behind on enacting policies to address the issue. Consent should be 'enthusiastic, affirmative, ongoing, coherent' — yes means yes, said Gilbert. 'I think people don't understand that that's actually what the law requires. And so if you know that, if you think about that as the way that we should approach consent, then I think it's easier to understand why those videos don't mean much.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 22, 2025.
Winnipeg Free Press
3 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Brewers become first NL team to reach 60 victories, riding 11-game win streak
SEATTLE (AP) — At first, Brandon Woodruff was caught a bit off guard. The Milwaukee Brewers' starting pitcher was fresh off a dazzling performance, one in which he tossed six innings of two-hit ball en route to the club's 6-0 win against the Seattle Mariners. But upon learning the victory gave the Brewers 11 wins in a row but also the best record in the National League, Woodruff was taken aback — but only briefly. 'Doesn't surprise me,' Woodruff said. 'We got a lot of great guys in this clubhouse and it's a fun team. So, I feel like we say that every year, but this year's a little bit different in a way.' To Woodruff's point, the Brewers have won 60 of their first 100 games with a very different roster than the one that won the National League Central last year. Shortstop Willy Adames (San Francisco Giants) and right-hander Corbin Burnes (Arizona Diamondbacks) both signed massive contracts elsewhere this offseason. Long-time closer Devin Williams, meanwhile, was traded to the New York Yankees in December. Their departures, though, have hardly hindered the Brewers. Even though Woodruff missed most of the first half as a result of being brought along slowly following surgery on his pitching shoulder, the Brewers' rotation has been stout in his absence. Milwaukee starters have combined for the sixth-lowest ERA in the majors, thanks in part to shrewd pickups like right-hander Quinn Priester, who Milwaukee acquired in April. 'I think that's a lot of credit to our front office and our coaching staff, and just putting the right guys in the room,' Woodruff said. 'When you can get guys that play for each other and play with each other and just have fun. That's the biggest thing. There's a reason why we've done this over the last eight, nine years.' Since 2018, the Brewers have won the NL Central four times and are on track to make it three straight seasons, doing so mostly without 'household names', as Woodruff said. This season, it's been a collective, well-balanced effort propelling the Brewers to frequent victories, including six against the Los Angeles Dodgers during their active win streak. Second baseman Brice Turang is leading the club's position players with three Wins Above Replacement, per Baseball Reference. Twenty-one-year old outfielder Jackson Chourio remains a force to be reckoned with after a standout rookie season. And right-hander Freddy Peralta leads all major league pitchers with 12 wins. All of it has led to quite the positive clubhouse culture from the perspective of folks like shortstop Joey Ortiz. 'Winning's great, winning's fun, It's a blessing to come to a big-league field and play the game,' Ortiz said. 'So, I feel like winning is just an extra on top of that. Everyone's so close in the locker room that I don't even think – of course we want to win, but I don't think winning matters. I think we have a great time just being together, and I think it shows on the field.' Thursdays Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter. It's a tight-knit group led by reigning National League manager of the year Pat Murphy. The baseball lifer is aware his team continues to gain confidence with each passing win, but that there is still much time remaining in the regular season. The trade deadline hasn't even come and gone, so the small-market Brewers still have plenty of time to work with – after all, as Murphy put it, it's only July 21. 'There's more to be done. There's more opportunity,' Murphy said. 'There's no reason to coast. There's every reason to know you're in a fight. You drop your guard, 'Whack!' and sometimes you don't recover from that.' ___ AP MLB:
Canada News.Net
5 hours ago
- Canada News.Net
WTA roundup: Polish seeds win Washington openers
(Photo credit: Susan Mullane-Imagn Images) Poland's Magdalena Frech and Magda Linette, the only two seeded players in action on Monday, earned straight-set wins in the first round of the Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington. Frech, the fifth seed, got past Ukrainian qualifier Yuliia Starodubtseva 6-2, 6-4, while eighth-seeded Linette downed Danielle Collins 7-5, 6-4. Frech picked on Starodubtseva's second serve, winning 13 of 22 points (59.1 percent). Collins committed 13 double faults while serving just four aces, and she won only 33 percent of her second-serve points. Greece's Maria Sakkari, the 2023 runner-up in Washington, defeated the United Kingdom's Katie Boulter 6-3, 6-4 in her opener. Two Canadians prevailed, as Leylah Fernandez topped Australia's Maya Joint 6-3, 6-3, and Victoria Mboko beat Russia's Anastasia Potapova 6-2, 6-4. Livesport Prague Open No. 8 seed Alycia Parks cruised to a 6-4, 6-2 victory against Japan's Mai Hontama in the first round at Prague. Parks was inconsistent with her serve in the 77-minute match, offsetting 10 aces with eight double faults, but she saved five of six break points and converted four of seven. No. 2 seed Rebecca Sramkova of Slovakia outlasted Czech Jesika Maleckova 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. Home hopeful and No. 5 seed Marie Bouzkova smashed China's Xinyu Gao 6-0, 6-2. No. 9 Ann Li was a 7-6 (1), 6-3 winner against Australia's Astra Sharma. Also winning in straight sets were Czech Sara Bejlek and Italians Elisabetta Cocciaretto and Lucrezia Stefanini.
