Vernon man wins at Wimbledon

Photo: Contributed - The Associated Press

Pospisil with his American partner Sock. This was their first tournament together.

Vernon's Vasek Pospisil and American partner Jack Sock won the Wimbledon men's doubles title on Saturday in an upset of the defending champions Bob and Mike Bryan of the United States 7-6 (5), 6-7 (3), 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 in a three-hour, six-minute thriller.

Pospisil and Sock were playing together for the first time and are the first team since 2000 (Lleyton Hewitt and Max Mirnyi) to win a Grand Slam title in their first tournament together. The Bryan twins were bidding for a 16th Grand Slam doubles title and 99th overall.

Pospisil, ranked 179th in the speciality, was playing in only his fifth doubles event at a major.

His previous best was the round of 16 with Ottawa's Jesse Levine at Wimbledon in 2013 and with Toronto's Daniel Nestor at the 2013 US Open.

The last time there was a Canadian man in the Wimbledon doubles final was in 2009 when Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic won their second All England Club title.

Pospisil and Sock saved four match points over two fifth-set games before Sock drilled a winner down the line for the historic victory.

Nestor and Kristina Mladenovic of France lost to Mirnyi and Chan Hao-Ching of Taiwan 7-6 (4), 7-5 in the mixed doubles semifinal.

Nestor and Mladenovic saved three match points on the Chan serve before Mirnyi poached a winning volley to end the 90-minute match.