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

Ferrer gives Raonic a lesson in clay court tennis

There's no point in sugar coating it. No.4 seed David Ferrer (ESP) defeated Milos Raonic today in straight sets, 6-1 6-5. Milos just wasn't at his best today, which he needed to be in order to give himself a chance against a tough clay court player like Ferrer. The slower conditions on the court would certainly did not play to Milos' advantage. In the end, Ferrer's experience and steady play proved to be too much for Raonic to handle.

Ferrer's dogged defensive play was giving Milos trouble from the very start of the match. The unforced errors for Milos began to pile up early, but he was still able to hit some heavy forehand shots to push Ferrer around the court and win some points. Raonic managed to end a few points quickly when he came in behind a big first serve, but ultimately couldn't employ this tactic consistently enough to protect his serve. Ferrer broke on his first opportunity of the match with Raonic serving at 1-2. Milos got a chance to break back in the following game, but wasn't able to convert on his single break point chance. From there, Ferrer ran away with the first set in 35 minutes.

To start the second, Ferrer was exhibiting some great baseline tennis while Raonic was still making errors. Raonic was broken to open the set and Ferrer jumped out to the early lead. The first (and only) ace for Milos came in his second service game of the second set. Some better hitting from Raonic earned him a break at love to get back on serve at 2-2. But the errors slowly crept back into Raonic's game, mainly on the forehand side. Midway through the set, Raonic tried to change things up by coming to the net more often. The strategy might have worked if he didn't miss so many volleys and if Ferrer wasn't constantly coming up with great passing shots from all over the court. Ferrer would break Raonic's serve two more times to take the set and the match.

So just like at the Australian Open this year, it was Ferrer who ended Milos' run in his first clay court ATP 1000 event. When the players approached the net to shake hands after the match, I think I heard Raonic thank Ferrer for the lesson. Nothing wrong with learning from one of the best clay court players around, and getting paid to do it.

Read what Milos had to say about the match here.

Despite the loss, Raonic will move into the top 30 when the new rankings come out after the this tournament. This is obviously good news when it comes to being seeded at the French Open and getting a favourable draw. But for now, we'll be looking forward to seeing Milos on the clay in Barcelona next week.

-multi