Peter Polansky - 2008

2008

Polansky went 11–3 in the winter Futures tournaments in South America, winning Guatemala F1. He won both his matches in the Davis Cup tie against Mexico, including his first over World No. 172 Bruno Echagaray handily in straight sets. Canada won the tie 4–1. He then reached the quarter-finals of the Santiago Challenger in late February with wins over World No. ~230 Rajeev Ram and World No. 198 Adrián Menéndez-Maceiras. In April, he accounted himself well in Canada's next Davis Cup tie, away to Chile, losing to World No. 15 Fernando González prior to winning a dead rubber. Polansky then reached the quarter-finals of the Florianópolis Challenger, defeating World No. 206 João Souza. He next reached the semi-finals of the Rabat Challenger during the first week of May, 2008, defeating World No. 179 Laurent Recouderc in the second round. He also defeated World No. 120 Teymuraz Gabashvili in mid-May at the Marrakech Challenger, where he reached the second round. All of these results from April on occurred on a clay surface.

In May 2008, he participated in his first International Series-level event, as a qualifier, in the Grand Prix Hassan II event. He lost in the first round in three sets to former World No. 3 Guillermo Coria. He then participated in a qualifying tournament for a grand slam event for the first time, Wimbledon, losing in the first round. Polanksy then lost in successive challengers in the first round before reaching the second round at back-to-back challengers, played in Canada (Granby and Moncton). Polansky then defeated both Colombian No. 1 and tournament No. 4 seed Alejandro Falla and defending champion and Canada No. 2 Frédéric Niemeyer to reach the quarterfinals of the Vancouver challenger. In August, he reached the second round of the 2008 US Open qualifying tournament for singles, defeating Rajeev Ram before falling to No. 24 seed Simon Stadler.

Polansky went 9 wins, 7 losses on the autumn American challenger circuit, his best results were reaching the semifinals of one tourney and the quarters of two others; at Waco, where he lost in three tight sets to top seed Vince Spadea; and in Louisville, Kentucky, where he defeated World No. 133 Amer Delic and World No. 295 Michael Russell before falling to No. 2 seed Jesse Levine in the quarters. He then reached the semifinals of the Rimouski challenger, where he lost to eventual champion Ryan Sweeting.