Memphis finals today
The match-up for the finals in Memphis was set yesterday after Andy Roddick (1) defeated Juan Martin del Potro in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4. Raonic was able to pull out a victory in 3 sets against Mardy Fish earlier in the day to secure his spot in the finals. Here's what an article over at the Regions Morgan Keegan tournament website has to say about the two finalists:
Coming into the tournament, there were copious amounts of buzz around two men: Andy Roddick and Milos Raonic. One is America's top player, a former World No.1 and US Open champion; the other is Canada's top player, and a potential future World No.1 and Grand Slam champion. On Sunday in Memphis they'll serve up a US-Canada battle for the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships title.
Potential No.1? Future Grand Slam champion? Given the timing of Raonic's arrival on the world stage and the changing nature of the game, I don't think these comments are outside the realm of possibility. It won't be long until there's room at the top of the rankings, and the guys who have been hogging all the Major titles won't be around forever. As Raonic develops as a player over the next year or two I think there will be more parity at the top of Men's tennis, or at least there will be more room for players to break through and win Majors. Of course, I could be totally wrong about this, which is why I generally steer clear of prognosticating about the future of sports. I've learned my lesson from trying to pick the winners for NFL games. But it's hard to resist in this case, considering the kinds of results Raonic has been having on tour lately.
Before the singles final goes ahead, the doubles final must be played. As it happens, Raonic isn't the only Canadian playing tennis today in Memphis. Canadian doubles veteran Daniel Nestor and his teammate Max Mirnyi (BLR) are also in the finals of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships. On top of this, Canada was also represented in the Women's singles final yesterday. Rebecca Marino is another rising star in Canadian tennis that had a great tournament in Memphis. Unfortunately, due to injury, she wasn't able to fully compete for the title and had to retire in the final against Magdalena Rybarikova. You can read about it here. More on Marino and Raonic in Memphis here. Hopefully she'll be able to recover and get back out on court soon.
It looks like Rogers Sportsnet will be carrying the singles final on all channels starting at 4:00PM ET. I think it was originally scheduled to be played only on Sportsnet One, but I'm guessing since Raonic made the finals they're going to do the right thing and bring the match to as wide an audience as possible.
Put your game faces on, Canada!
Good luck in the finals, y'all.
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Raonic def. Fish
Once again, Milos Raonic needed all three sets in his victory over Mardy Fish this afternoon, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. Fish was able to steal the second set away by breaking Raonic's serve at 4-5. Mardy also got into Milos' serve early in the second set, but Raonic was able to save 3 consecutive break points from 0-40 down and eventually win the game. After the somewhat shaky second set, Raonic got an early break in the third and didn't let Fish back in the match.
It seemed that Fish's style of play, with frequent visits to the net, caused Milos some trouble at times during the match. Fish ran down a lot of balls and made a lot of nice volleys, but he wasn't able to get into too many of Raonic's service games. Not surprisingly, the serve was steady (and powerful) enough to keep most of Fish's advances at bay. Raonic managed to rack up 23 aces, bringing his winning streak to 7-0 for matches in which he's served 20+ aces this year.
Here are the stats from the match (captured from the ATP live scores ticker):
Raonic hasn't played a 2-set match since winning the title in San Jose last week. With all this tennis he's been playing, he probably feels like he's competing in a Major tournament. Who knows, that may just be a good thing when it comes to preparing for the physical and mental strains of 2-week long best-of-five set tournaments.
The second semi-final has yet to be played in Memphis, so it'll be a few more hours until we know who Raonic will face in the finals.
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Sportsnet coverage of Memphis
Today, Rogers Sportsnet will feature live coverage of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships starting at 12:00PM ET -- here's the full TV schedule. This means the Raonic vs. Fish semi-final match will be available nationally on all the Sportsnet channels, which is great for us fans. Not sure if the coverage window will run into the Men's Doubles match featuring Canadian Danial Nestor and teammate Max Mirnyi (BLR).
Further coverage of the tournament starts at 4:00PM ET on Sportsnet One. The featured match here will be the other Men's semi-final between Roddick and Del Potro. Should be a good one.
Here is the schedule of play for the day.
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Just enough aces
Raonic advances to the semi-finals in Memphis after defeating Kendrick in another 3 set match, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. But unlike the first two matches of the tournament (which also went the distance), Milos did not require a tiebreak in the final set to win the match. Instead, he got an early break in the third and rode it all the way to the finish line.
After a somewhat dubious call (in Milos' opinion, who was clearly upset by it) which cost him a match point, Raonic came right back to blast an ace for the win bringing his match total to an even 20. According to the commentators, Raonic is 6-0 this year when hitting 20+ aces in a single match. That's a lot of free points.
Here are the stats from today's match (captured from the live scores ticker):
With the win, Milos moves inside the top 50 on the ATP Tour. Not too shabby, but I expect him to keep moving up the rankings over the coming weeks and months. This higher ranking means we'll be seeing much more of Raonic in the bigger ATP Masters 1000 tournaments -- with more points on the line, this is where all the big boys play.
Up next in the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships is either American Sam Querrey (5) or also-American Mardy Fish (4). Their match has just gotten underway in Memphis, where Fish has taken the early lead by breaking Querrey's first service game. Beyond that, Andy Roddick, Lleyton Hewitt and Jaun Martin del Potro are all big names still looking to make it through the top half of the draw.
There is much more good tennis to come in Memphis. I know I'll be watching.
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Raonic .vs. Kendrick in Memphis
The game just started in Memphis, so far Raonic and Kendrick look pretty close but Kendrick will have little chance of winning if he can't find a way to break through Milos' serve.
It is on TV on channel 105 or 704 (HD) on Eastlink here in Atlantic Canada. This channel is "SportsNet ONE". If you don't have that channel, please go to SportsNet's live streaming site to watch this tennis match direct from the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in Memphis (link).
The video at sportsnet.ca is not choppy and it is a couple seconds ahead of the HD coverage on cable and the quality isn't TOO bad, considering it is free streaming on the internet... You even get the same commercials as on TV! Not sure if it evaluates your bandwidth and changes the video bitrate according to that. Here are a couple of screenshots to show the quality of the free streaming video on sportsnet.ca:
Many thanks to Rogers SportsNet for providing this coverage online and in HD from every Canadian Tennis Fan (if I may speak for them!).
Also, I noted that the commentator noted that the "online blogs" are buzzing - perhaps he's seen milosraonic.com ! He also mentioned that Raonic is the"Ace Leader" for the year and he's getting "as much" attention as Mike Weir did... I say he deserves more and I'm sure he will get it! By the time Montréal comes along, it will be an extremely exciting time for Canadian Tennis.
To this end, MilosRaonic.com will continue to grow and I'm planning to include discussion forums, perhaps multiple blogs (this is the first one - for Canadian fans), links, and generally a hub for fans of Milos Raonic. If anyone has any suggestions about what they would like to see on the site, please leave a comment!
Way to go Milos, keep it up!
-- WACB
P.S. A new Radiohead album, "The King of Limbs" is on it's way, go check out www.thekingoflimbs.com for more info. Also, check out their first music video apparently from the album below:
Too many aces
How many aces is too many aces? The greatest philosophers throughout history have struggled with that question for millennia. In his victory over Radek Stepanek today, Milos Raonic hit 38 aces during the 3 set match. This is what scientists call a dizzying amount. It is apparently a career high for Raonic according to one of the match commentators.
After losing the second set tiebreak, Raonic flat out blew Stepanek off the court in the deciding third set tiebreak, winning it 7 points to 1. Impressive stuff.
With Stepanek down, Robert Kendrick is next. He's ranked outside the Top 100. That match will go ahead tomorrow, either in the morning or at night. No doubt Raonic is hoping for an evening match after playing a couple of tough 3-setters.
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vs. Stepanek
Milos just aced his way out of a set point for Stepanek in the second set. As we head to a tiebreak which could decide the match for Raonic, I'm watching some of the worst quality streaming video I've ever seen via Sportsnet.ca. The feed is also unreliable, and it cuts out frequently causing the Sportsnet video player to move on to the next video. Not sure if the source from the Memphis tournament is to blame, or if there is actually a problem with Sportsnet.ca -- either way, this is certainly not the way to watch a tennis match.
I can barely make out the names in the onscreen scoreboard (let alone the numbers). Good thing the names Stepanek doesn't look like Raonic. At least the live scores from the tournament page works.
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Milos Raonic .vs. Fernando Verdasco (déja vu)
It was another close match between Fernando Verdasco and Milos Raonic at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in Memphis, TN tonight. Although I could find no way to watch it (Sportsnet apparently starts their coverage tomorrow night - one night too late), I had the live score ticker from the tournament website always in a visible location. Milos was again victorious over Verdasco as he was a few days ago when he beat him in the final of the SAP Open in San José. In the end, the matched summed up nicely:
The match was a nail-biter even though I was only getting small text updates and changing scores every 15-45 seconds or so... We shouldn't have that problem in the future though since SportsNet.ca will be streaming the rest of the tennis from Memphis apparently.
If you're wondering what the match looked like:
And of course, no camera has a suitable shutter speed to capture Milos' serve but here was an attempt:
By the way, both of these photos were stolen from Bobby Chintapalli's twitter feed. She was at the game and mostly commented on how "dreamy" Fernando Verdasco was - but at least she took these pictures for us. Thank-you!
Best of luck to you in the second round Milos!
-- WACB
Milos Wins San Jose
Raonic defeats Verdasco to win his first ATP singles title in San Jose. Milos won in straight sets, each going to a tiebreak. Both players were steady on their serve, and there were no breaks throughout the entire match.
Raonic saved 4 consecutive set points in the first set tiebreaker, and ultimately won the set. Verdasco was able to earn a break point on Raonic's serve during the second set, but Milos held serve and kept Fernando from taking control of the match.
Congrats, Milos! Enjoy your victory syrup.
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How to watch or stream the Raonic / Verdasco final at the 2011 SAP Open in San José, California
There are a few ways to watch Milos Raonic in his first ATP Final at the 2011 SAP Open in San José and hopefully take home his first title. The match will take place no earlier than 5 pm Pacific Time (that's 1 am or 01h00 GMT or 8 pm or 20h00 Eastern Time or 9 pm in my local Atlantic Time Zone)!
Internet - Stream over the web on Veetle.com
Veetle.com is the streaming partner with the 2011 SAP Open and have streamed the entire tournament via their 2011 SAP Open streaming website. If you want to watch all the action in San José, your best bet is to check out this live stream from anywhere in the world.
Their coverage is available in varying quality levels and at the highest level the sound and video are perfectly in sync and very impressive indeed.
On TV in Canada - Watch on Rogers Sportsnet
I just found out this morning that Rogers SportsNet will cover the 2011 SAP Open final tonight as well. Their coverage starts at 8 pm Eastern Time and, according to their website, it will be aired on SportsNet East, Central, and Pacific - which means those who only have SportsNet West are out of luck and will have to watch the live internet stream on veetle.com.
On TV Elsewhere
According to the SAP Open website:
In The Bay Area and around the USA (all times are PST)
Singles Semifinal #1: Will be played at 1:00pm on Saturday, February 12 and will be broadcast live on CSN California and on Tennis Channel.
Singles Semifinal #2: Will be played at 7:00pm on Saturday, February 12 and will broadcast live on Tennis Channel and tape delayed at 10:00 pm on CSN California.
Singles Final: Will be played at 5:00pm on Sunday, February 13 and will be broadcast live on CSN California and on Tennis Channel
CSN Bay Area will be airing these matches tape delayed on the following dates:
Singles Semifinal #1: Tuesday, February 15 at 3:00pm
Singles Semifinal #2: Wednesday, February 16 at 1:00pm
Singles Final: Wednesday, February 16 at 3:00pm
Both Singles Semifinals and Singles Final will be broadcast on a live and tape delayed basis in many CSN markets across the USA. Please check local TV listings for more information.
International
Both Singles Semifinals and Singles Final will be broadcast live and tape delayed in numerous countries around the world. Again, please check your local TV listings for more information.
Let's all tune in and cheer on Milos!
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