Peter Polansky - 2010

2010

Polansky began the year by reaching the second round in qualifying for the 2010 Aircel Chennai Open, losing as the No. 6 seed to unseeded Prakash Amritraj 11 points to 9 in a third set tie-break. Amritraj went on to qualify for the main draw. Polansky did not participate in the doubles. Polansky failed to qualify for the Australian Open in singles, failing at the first hurdle to No. 24 seed Marsel Ilhan.

Unseeded Polansky defeated Korean No.1 Im Kyu-tae in the first round of the Honolulu Challenger in three sets before losing in the second round to No.8 seed Ryan Sweeting. His poor form of late has seen him not be able to defend the rankings points he earned at last year's Australian Open and he now ranked outside the top 200 for the first time since August. After being off two weeks, Polanksy attempted to qualify for the Brasil Open. He defeated Júlio Silva the No. 8 seed in the first round, but lost in the second round to fellow unseeded player Caio Zampieri.

Polansky failed to qualify for the Copa Telmex, losing to No. 8 seed Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo in the first round, in a close third-set tiebreaker. The following week Polanksy lost in the first round of qualifying for the Delray Beach ATP 250 tournament, to No. 5 seed Paul Capdeville, in straight sets. The next week, Polansky played number one singles in Davis Cup in Canada's tie away to Colombia. He did not fare well, losing the opening singles rubber to World No. 183 Carlos Salamanca. Coach Martin Laurendeau opted to play Steven Diez in the reverse singles as Canada lost the tie 1–4.

In April Polansky failed by just one rankings place to be seeded in singles for the Challenger Banque Nationale. He defeated No. 5 seed Brendan Evans in the first round in straight sets before falling to an in form Tim Smyczek also in straight sets. In doubles, he and fellow Canuck Pierre-Ludovic Duclos lost in the first round. Two weeks later Polansky lost in the second round of qualifying for the U.S. Clay Court Championships. The following week, he lost in the first round of the 2010 Baton Rouge Pro Tennis Classic to unseeded Joseph Sirianni, while in doubles he and partner Michael Yani lost in the second round. The week after, Polansky lost in the second round at the 2010 Tallahassee Tennis Challenger to eventual champion Brian Dabul. In doubles, he and partner Donald Young lost in the first round.

In May Polansky lost in qualifying at the 2010 Serbia Open as the top seed but entered the main draw as a lucky loser, where he lost Horacio Zeballos, 6–7 in the third set. He did not play doubles. The following week Polansky lost in the second round of the Zagreb Open to top seeded Marcos Daniel, while in doubles he and partner Michael Yani lost in the first round. Polansky next was the sole Canadian in the draw for qualifying for the French Open, lost in the first round, 7–9 in the third, to No. 28 seed Ramón Delgado. A week later, as the No. 8 seed at the 2010 LA Tennis Open USTA Men's Challenger, he reached the semi-finals where he lost No. 5 seed Robert Kendrick. In doubles he and partner Milos Raonic lost in the first round.

In June Polansky reached the second round of the 2010 Weil Tennis Academy Challenger, defeating fellow Canadian Pierre-Ludovic Duclos before falling to Marinko Matosevic. He did likewise the following week at the 2010 Košice Open, beating Yannick Mertens handily before falling to Ivo Minář. The following week Polansky failed to qualify for Wimbledon, for the second time and again in the first round, going down to Marinko Matosevic. Two weeks ago, with the new ATP rankings released for the week starting June 21, Polansky found himself the new Canada No. 1 singles player. Then that week, unseeded at the 2010 Camparini Gioielli Cup, he beat Laurent Recouderc before losing to No. 5 and eventual runner-up Pablo Andújar.

After a couple of weeks off, Polansky reached the second round of the 2010 Comerica Bank Challenger, defeating No. 6 seed Kevin Kim before falling to qualifier Brydan Klein. He also lost in the second round in doubles, partnering compatriot Milos Raonic. Last week Polansky was the No. 7 seed at the 2010 Fifth Third Bank Tennis Championships where he has defeated Chris Guccione in the first round handily, and Raven Klaasen in the second, before falling to No. 1 seed and eventual champion Carsten Ball. Again playing doubles with Raonic, the pair withdrew from their second round match due to a Raonic injury.

In July Polansky, as the No. 8 in singles at the 2010 Challenger Banque Nationale de Granby, lost to World No. 221 Greg Jones. (The singles field for this event features the top eight ranked (active) Canadian tour players.) In doubles, Polansky and partner Erik Chvojka reached the quarter-finals (second round). The following week Polansky lost to No. 1 seed Taylor Dent in the first round of the 2010 Odlum Brown Vancouver Open, in three sets. The very next week, he appeared in the singles main draw of the 2010 Rogers Cup, having been granted a wild card, where he faced and beat No. 13 Jürgen Melzer in the first round. Peter lost in the second round however to Victor Hănescu in the second round in straight sets. He did not play doubles.

After a week off, Polansky qualified for singles play at the US Open, having defeated Santiago González, Franko Škugor, and John Millman. Polansky has advanced to the second round of the main draw, after defeating No. 30 seed Juan Mónaco. He is the first Canadian to do so since Daniel Nestor in 2000. Peter lost however in the next round to wild card entrant and former World No. 4 James Blake. This result saw his singles ranking return to near his career high, he is now World No. 176.

After the Open Polansky, versus the Dominican Republic, won both of his singles Davis Cup rubbers as Canada won the tie, a playoff to stay in the Americas Zone Group 1, 5–0. The following week he reached the second round of the 2010 Chang-Sat Bangkok Open 2 in singles, defeating a Thai wild card entrant before falling to Sebastian Rieschick. A week later Peter lost to unseeded Frederik Nielsen in the qualifying round of the PTT Thailand Open. Then the following week he lost to No. 8 Rajeev Ram in the first round of qualifying for the 2010 Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championship. He did not play for the remainder of the year. Due to the surge of teenager Milos Raonic, Polansky once again became Canada No. 2 in singles, for the first time since June of the previous year.