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

Match Preview – Milos Raonic .vs. Nicolas Almagro – 7 January 2012 at Chennai Open

Match Time and TV coverage in Canada

Unfortunately for those of us who like to sleep in here in North America, Milos' match tomorrow with Nico Almagro is first up, at 5 PM local time (India Standard Time) at the Chennai Open.

Sportsnet has indicated that they will be airing the semi-finals, and potentially also the finals.  Their coverage at sportsnet.ca (and presumably at the same time on TV) starts at 6:30 AM Eastern (EST) tomorrow, Saturday, 7 Jan, and Sunday, 8 Jan.  The digital "cable guide" is not updated yet but they were scheduled to show Hopman Cup action tomorrow morning anyway...

Nicolas Almagro

   (a few pics from Chennai)

Nico Almagro has only had to play one match (the quarterfinals today) at this tournament, after receiving a bye in the first round and a "walk-over" in the second round.  He is also entered in a doubles team that's no longer in the running...  His official tournament profile is here.

Nico Almagro's star is on the rise as well as Milos'.  A few years older at age 26, he is currently ranked #10, just slightly down from a career-high #9 that he achieved last year.

Almagro and Raonic have not met on the ATP courts as adversaries, but they did play in two doubles tournaments last year on the clay courts of Barcelona and Monte Carlo.  Unfortunately, these two endeavours ended short, with first-round losses to Dolgopolov/Malisse and Gasquet/Ljubicic respectively.

--wacb