It has been a good year for Vasek Pospisil. Bookended by the two best results of his career, the past 52 weeks have seen his ranking rise from No. 89 a year ago to No. 27 after reaching the Washington final. The Canadian has a booming serve and a solid ground game to go with it. Ironically, that sounds a lot like another top young player from his nation.

Pospisil competed in his first-ever ATP final on Sunday in Washington. His opponent was the afore-referenced other young Canadian, Milos Raonic. The two play very similar games, although Milos is the more famous of the pair because he began competing at the top levels earlier, three years ago. But when things are said and done a decade from now, it would not be surprising if the two have very similar careers in terms of overall performance. Pospisil just started later.

Unfortunately for those expectations, the younger man could not show them to be true on Sunday. In fact, he made the exact opposite seem likely. Pospisil was broken four times in the final and was unimpressive on serve against a player not known for his return game. While Raonic has been getting much more solid from the baseline, most top-50 players can hold serve against him more often than five times in nine attempts. Certainly talented players who live off their big serves should be able to bring Milos to tiebreaks or keep him close. Losing a set 6-1 is shocking.

On the other hand, the fact that it was a shocking result should show just how much our expectations of Pospisil have risen. A year ago, we saw him as a talented player on the Challenger circuit. That all changed when he served his way to the semifinals at the Rogers Cup in Montreal last year and put his name on the tennis map. He upset John Isner and Tomas Berdych before losing to Raonic there as well. That match was a much tighter affair, though, ending in a third-set tiebreak.

Pospisil had a bit of a slump between this January and June, where he went 10 events without being able to reach a quarterfinal. Still, this tournament in Washington showed tremendous signs for the future from him. While his week ended in a lopsided loss, his dominant victory over Tomas Berdych in the third round and his tough performance to take out Richard Gasquet in the semifinals should say a lot more about Pospisil than the nerves he showed in his first career final.

And we cannot forget about doubles, where he and Jack Sock have become quite the formidable team. The pair are now 10-0 and have won the two tournaments where they have competed, including Pospisil’s first career Grand Slam title at Wimbledon. (Sock won the US Open Mixed Doubles with Melanie Oudin in 2011.) Pospisil’s confidence has never been higher, and a tight loss to Richard Gasquet in Toronto this week should not have shaken it for long. He will look to build off the previous week’s success in singles as the summer progresses and possibly continue making a name for himself in doubles as he continues his partnership with Sock. One thing is for sure, though. For this young Canadian, lots of things are pointing in the right direction moving forward.