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

Raonic loses to Petzschner in Halle but advances to the doubles final with Robin Haase

Philipp Petzschner (GER) defeated Milos Raonic in three sets at the Gerry Weber Open, 6-3  6(6)-7  6-3.

With the crowd behind him, Petzschner seemed to make everything in the first set. Milos was having a less than stellar performance on his serve, but he only faced one break point throughout the opening set. Unfortunately, Petzschner converted the point and put the set away in less than 30 minutes.

Raonic began to turn things around in the second set. He started to earn more free points off his serve, and was able to work his way into Petzschner's service games a little more frequently. Milos had multiple opportunities to break but the set ultimately had to be decided in a tiebreak. Petzschner jumped out to a 5-2 in the breaker before Raonic battled back and won it. The German was not pleased.

All the first serves in the world couldn't have prevented Petzschner from getting the early break in the third, who strung a few amazing points together to open up a 0-40 lead on Milos' first service game. From there, the German denied Raonic any chance of getting back on serve by continuing to serve well and put points away by approaching the net. The serve-volley technique was working for Petzschner, who always seemed to have an answer whenever Milos tried to pass him.

For his first ATP tour grass court event, Milos has shown a lot of potential. It is easy to forget just how inexperienced the Canadian is at this level, especially when we have such high expectations for him. Against most players, the serve alone would have been more than enough to get the job done today, but Petzschner was simply too good on too many points. More on the match here.  Video recap from gerryweber-open.de here.

Of course, Raonic is still in the doubles draw in Halle, and his semi-final match with Haase is scheduled for later today.

-multi

Milos Raonic & Robin Haase advance to finals with defeat of Aussie duo of Lleyton Hewitt & Peter Luczak 6(6)-7, 7-6(4), 10-5

With Raonic and Hewitt both having lost in their singles quarter-final matches earlier in the day, they battled with their doubles partners, Haase and Luczak respectively, to avoid a second loss.  While the Australians were able to win the first set tiebreak, the Dutch & Canadian duo stepped it up in the second half of the game to win with a final score of 6(6)-7, 7-6(4), 10-5.

from ATPWorldTour.com

Raonic & Haase will play in the finals on Sunday versus the winner of the other semi-final to be played on Saturday between the team of Rohan Bopann of India and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan and the home-team German hopefuls of Christopher Kas and Philipp Kohlschreiber.  Of course, Kohlschreiber will play his semi-final singles match tomorrow as well... in fact the German fans will have a lot to cheer for tomorrow, with a German in all the semi-final matches on the order of play for the day.

- WACB

Milos Raonic and Robin Haase advance to Doubles Semi-Final in Halle

Raonic / Haase defeated Meffert / Zverev 6-3, 6-4 at Gerry Weber Open

Milos Raonic continued his success on the grass this morning with a straight-sets doubles victory in Halle alongside Dutch partner Robin Haase, 6-3, 6-4.

The match wasn't televised as far as I could find, but from the stats it looks like Raonic and Haase played a slightly more solid game than their German opponents in every regard.

from ATPWorldTour.com

Milos Raonic and Robin Haase to face Aussie hopefuls Hewitt & Luczak in Semi-Final match in Halle

The Dutch & Canadian duo moves on to face the Aussie team of Lleyton Hewitt and Peter Luczak in the semi-finals.  EDIT: Raonic & Haase will play Hewitt & Luczak on Friday, 10 June, at 10:30 am Eastern Time (4:30 pm CEST) on Court 2 in Halle. Milos will have played his singles quarter-final match about 5 hours earlier that morning, so he will be warmed up and loose, but depending on how the match goes, he may also be tired...

- WACB

Raonic def. Kamke in straights

Milos Raonic defeated Tobias Kamke (GER) in straight sets at the Gerry Weber Open today, 7-6(2) 6-3.

Milos hit an ace on his very first serve of the match, setting the pace early on for his service games. Everything was going the way of the server in the opening set, with most games being completely one-sided. Raonic had a slight opening of 0-30 at one point, but Kamke promptly served his way out of trouble. A tiebreak seemed inevitable until Kamke earned a break point chance with Milos serving at 5-6. The German's hopes for stealing the set before the tiebreak were quickly dashed by a bombing serve from Raonic. A few terrific volleys tipped the breaker in Raonic's favour, winning it 7-2 without losing a point on his serve.

The match tightened up after the first set. The points became longer and more contested, and both players began showing more variety during the rallies. Raonic got his first chance to break on Kamke's second service game. After a relatively lengthy rally, Raonic came to the net forcing Kamke to hit a topspin lob. It landed long, and Milos got the first break of the match to take a 3-1 lead in the second. Raonic looked great serving out the match at 5-3, holding at love to take the match and secure a spot in the quarter-finals.

While the sheer dominance on serve was a major factor for Raonic, he also displayed some skills at the net when coming in behind heavy forehands and serves. Milos made some nice volleys at key points throughout the match, and he often used the backhand slice very effectively to break the rhythm of the baseline rallies. In short, everything seems to be working for Milos on the grass.

-multi

UPDATE: Milos will face Philipp Petzschner (GER) in the quarter-finals in Halle. That match isn't scheduled for tomorrow, but Raonic will be playing doubles with Robin Haase on Court 2 while the other half of the singles draw is being sorted out on Center Court.

Raonic through to second round in Halle

Milos Raonic defeated Pablo Andujar (ESP) in straight sets at the Gerry Weber Open today, 6-3 6-1.

As you would expect, Milos came out serving very effectively on the grass. He hit seven aces in the first set, and didn't face a single break point. Raonic took the lead late in the set, and got a second break to take the first set 6-3.

After holding to start the second, Raonic broke Andujar right away to go up 2-0. Milos backed this up by holding at love in the following game. It looked like the wheels were falling off for Andujar. Milos would take the set 6-1 after getting another break and racking up another five aces, bringing the match total to 12. I think it is safe to say that Milos is happy to be off the clay and playing on a surface that is more complimentary to his style and serving strengths.  Match stats from ATPWorldTour.com:

Raonic will face Tobias Kamke of Germany in the second round. The two have yet to meet at the ATP level, but Kamke defeated Milos at the Granby National Bank Challenger tournament last year.

In other news, Daniel Nestor has reportedly stated that he would like to play doubles with Milos Raonic at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London. Needless to say, that's a very exciting prospect. After all, Nestor himself just won the men's doubles title at the French Open with Max Mirnyi. We likely would have seen the two team up in Davis Cup play earlier this year, but Nestor had to pull out due to injury.

-multi