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

Milos Rolls Into Semis in Barcelona

Milos Raonic notched one of the biggest victories of his career today defeating world number 4 Andy Murray in the quarter-finals of the Barcelona Open, 6-4 7-6(3).

This was nothing short of a stellar match from Raonic. The serve was highly effective, allowing Milos to come into net and put points away early. This was the strategy from the beginning. The aggressive play was necessary to keep from entering to protracted rallies with Murray. Even when he wasn't able to end the points with a quick one-two punch off the first serve, Raonic was moving so well that he had plenty of time to run around the backhand and unload on the ball. These forehands penetrated the court extremely well despite the slow conditions. Milos didn't even face a break point in the first set.

Murray adjusted his game in the second and found himself in more of Raonic's service games. While Milos had the clear advantage in the first set and was more or less dictating play, the second set went back and forth with each player getting a break of serve. Raonic did well to keep Murray from taking control of the match. The set needed to be decided with a tiebreak and took care of business behind some solid serving.

This is a huge win, obviously. Not only does it put Raonic into the semis, but it's a decisive victory over at Top 5 player in Andy Murray. Milos looked good out there on the clay. Really good. I was blown away by some of the winners Milos was hitting, all while keeping the errors to a minimum. Raonic looked like he belonged out there against Murray, who is easily the best active player who has yet to win a major tournament. Being able to take a set off Federer before ultimately losing the match was something of a milestone. This is much more. What else is there for me to say? I'll let Raonic speak for himself on this one:

"It's very, very difficult and a big plus in confidence for me," said Raonic. "Clay's not his best surface, but he consistently does well on it. Last year he reached the semi-finals at the French Open, Monte-Carlo and Rome, so he can play really well on it. For me, it was a big win, regardless of the surface." (Source: ATP)

Up next for Raonic is clay court specialist David Ferrer. The Spanish Bulldog is currently ranked No.6 in the world and has a perfect 3-0 record head-to-head against Milos. This will be an extremely tough outing for Raonic who will likely have to work even harder to break through Ferrer's return game.

Sportsnet will be replaying the Raonic v Murray match at 2PM EST today. If you missed it this morning or just want to relive the action, now's your chance. You can read more from Sportsnet here.

The Claymentum just keeps rolling on!

-multi