Milos Raonic – Canada Fan Blog an (unofficial) blog about tennis and Canadian player Milos Raonic

Verdasco reaches SAP Open final against Raonic

Excerpt from Tennischannel.com article:

Verdasco and Raonic have never played but will become quite familiar with each other in the next few days because of a scheduling quirk. After playing Sunday in San Jose, the two will meet again on Wednesday in the first round in Memphis.

``I prefer to win tomorrow and lose in Memphis so I will have one more title,'' Verdasco said.

Raonic has had a strong start to the season, going through qualifying and winning three matches in the Australian Open and making it to his first ATP World Tour final. He has shot up the rankings from 156th at the end of last year to 84th heading into this week. He is expected to be 66th if he loses on Sunday and 59th if he wins the title.

``It's nice getting that kind of attention,'' he said. ``But more importantly it's nice doing well at the top level of tennis because that's what my goals are.''

The 20-year-old is looking to become the first Canadian to win a title on the ATP World Tour since Greg Rusedski won in Seoul in April 1995.

He leads the tournament with 45 aces in just three matches, winning a staggering 87.4 percent of first-serve points. He tuned up for the final by playing Ivo Karlovic in an exhibition, losing a pair of tiebreakers to the big-serving Croat.

Monfils withdraws, Raonic advances

Raonic is currently playing an exhibition match against "Dr." Ivo Karlovic. Gael Monfils withdrew from today's match citing a wrist injury and as a result, Milos advances to his first ATP Final without having a play a semi-final. Neat. Although advancing to the finals in a walkover, beating veterans like Malisse and Blake is no small feat.

It's no surprise that the first set of this exhibition match went to a tiebreak, since both players tend to protect their serve well. It looks like the second set is heading towards a similar result.

It'll be interesting to see who Raonic will play in the finals, though I'm sure it'll be a good match regardless of who advances from the Verdasco vs Del Potro semi.

Good luck in the finals, Milos.

-multi