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

Rakuten Open @ Tokyo Update – 5 Oct 2011

Milos Raonic's re-match with Rafael Nadal in Tokyo tonight (tomorrow in Japan)!

Milos will have his chance against Rafael Nadal once more on the hard courts of Tokyo tonight.  Their match will be up second following the match between Matthew Ebden (AUS) and David Ferrer (ESP), so it will probably be after 1 am Eastern, in the wee hours of Thurs, 6 October, before Milos and Rafa make their way out onto the court.  Perhaps this isn't so bad for those in Western Canada, but for us out east, it's probably too late to watch and be functional the next morning at work...

UPDATE: Sportsnet has picked up coverage of the Rakuten Japan Open for the Raonic vs. Nadal match. It will be shown on Sportsnet One and streaming online at sportsnet.ca beginning at 1AM ET, October 6.

Milos lost to Rafa last year in the same round in the ATP 500 tournament in Tokyo, the round of 16, with a scoreline of 6-4, 6-4 (head-to-head).  See a few videos of last year's action here and here (the first video includes interview footage and the second is the ATP highlight reel posted to Youtube by Tennis Canada).

Milos Raonic and Pabo Andujar lose to the Murrays in doubles play in Tokyo

Raonic (CAN) and Andujar (ESP) lost their first round doubles match today against Jamie and Andy Murray (GBR) 7-5, 6-7(2), 10-6 today (October 5th).  It was a close match judging by the scoreline and given the opponents I would be surprised if this were any blow to Milos' confidence for the rest of the tournament.

Links:

Order of Play for 6 Oct (12 noon in Tokyo start is 11 pm Eastern tonight, 5 Oct) and;

Men's Singles Draw from Rakuten Open Tokyo.