The Best of the Best

Lou Marsh Trophy voting day. Always circled on my calendar, particularly as long as I've been privileged to vote on Canada's most coveted athlete-of-the-year award.

Tough year to evaluate, in many ways. Going in, I know who I'd love to see win, but won't see win. But I would say it was the finest performance by a Canadian athlete I witnessed in 2011.

That came in September in Tel Aviv, Israel when Vancouver's Vasek Pospisil, previously known mostly for teaming up with Milos Raonic to beat Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in a doubles match the year before, nearly singlehandedly pushed Canada's Davis Cup team past the highly-ranked Israelis and into the World Group for the first time since 2004.

Davis Cup isn't exactly at the top of Canada's sporting agenda, largely because we've rarely accomplished much in the 111-year-old competition, which is one of the largest in the world with 130 participating nations. Israel had been a world semi-finalist two years earlier, and Canada went into the competition as a significant underdog largely because Raonic, the country's top singles player, had been off for three months following hip surgery.

As it turned out, Raonic played only one match, lost, and then couldn't play his singles match. Pospisil, meanwhile, started by defeating Israel's No. 1 player, Dudi Sela, teamed with veteran Daniel Nestor to upset the highly-ranked Israeli doubles team and then, in the final match before an incredibly hostile crowd, won his final singles match over Amir Weintraub - the player who had beaten Raonic - to give Canada the victory.

It was a stunning, spectacular performance by Pospisil over three days in wilting heat, and vaulted Cansda into a tie with highly ranked France this coming February in Pospisil's hometown of Vancouver.

With big names like Patrick Chan out there, few will remember Pospisil's performance in today's Lou March voting. Heck, if a tennis player gets any votes, it will probably be Raonic.

But let it be noted here that Pospisil, to my mind, delivered a memorable and noteworthy performance that day in Tel Aviv. He won't win, and probably shouldn't, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't remember and acknowledge his achievement.

Comments

[sla]

Pospisil really? If unknown are allowed to be picked then you opened up a whole new kettle of fish? What about Joseph Valtellini? He is one of the Top professional thaiboxers in the world and hes Canadian..I bet the same amount of people know him as Pospisil

[S.]

I'd give Vasek my vote. I watched that Davis Cup tie and Vasek was definitely the star that weekend. Canada doesn't get to the world group too often.

Who is Patrick Chan?
S.

[steve]

so who did your vote go to?...you said it was the finest performance by a canadian athlete in 2011 that you've witnessed---did you see pat chan's performance at the world's?

i don't know what your point of this article is, other than to say that pospisil had a great achievement, which he did...you say you would love to see him win, which should mean that you would vote for him...then you say that he probably shouldn't win??

[Penguin]

Lots of worthy nominees, but one is missing and it's WAY past time that he was recognized as one of Canada's top athletes. I'm talking about Daniel Nestor, who had yet another good year in 2011. From Wikipedia regarding 2011: "In 2011, he won four titles with Mirnyi: the French Open, Memphis, the Shanghai Masters and the Year End Championships in London. In the final of the Year End Championships, he played his 1,148th match, an all-time record." Because he is a tennis player, and more so because he excels in doubles, despite being consistently one of the top players in the world, scaling heights that no Canadian has ever reached in the sport, Nestor has never received the recognition that he deserves. Of course, I don't think Jonathan Power, former number on squash player in the world, was ever recognized either.

[ds]

Thank heavens you are a tennis fan Damien. If it weren't for that, we wouldn't have a voice for tennis in Canada... tennis is a sport - even in the eyes of countries where it's popular - that's heavily underrated. I just wish I was there to watch Pospisil do the incredible... and vault us into the main draw. What an accomplishment... not to mention Daniel Nestor, probably the most under-appreciated Canadian athlete, EVER.

[JMK]

Had Milos Raonic not been injured for much of the year do you think he might have had a chance at this award? He certainly had a spectacular year in his career and it's early in his... Just curious.

[Mike Quinlan]

lol. you wouldnt post a comment that was mildly critical. nevertheless great of you to remind us of Pospisil's amazing performance in Israel. Please keep writing about tennis. Just dont insist players compromise their careers for the sake of a show when injured.