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

Milos in Cincy – Western & Southern Open Preview

UPDATE on how to watch tonight's match (thanks Tomaso):

https://twitter.com/MilosRaonicBlog/status/235471587321737217

Milos Raonic to face 2012 Rogers Cup Masters 1000 finalist, Richard Gasquet, in first round of Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati

Fresh off an excellent result in last week's rain-ridden Masters 1000 tournament in Toronto, Richard Gasquet is set to meet Milos Raonic, who was almost his semi-final opponent last week.

The match is set to take place not before 7 pm local (Eastern Daylight Time) on the Grandstand Court.  This court is televised, so you can probably easily find a live stream of the tennis using your favorite search engine.

Both players entered the top-20 as a result of their success in Toronto at the Rogers Cup, Milos for the first time, and as for Gasquet, though he's dipped in and out of the top-20 many times, he hasn't been ranked as high as his current #13 position since August of 2011 (he was actually as high as #11 in July 2011).  A QF result or better would mean another gain in points for Gasquet, who hasn't been in the top-10 since July 2008.

As for Milos, he will continue to work toward his own ranking.  Though making it to the top-16 before the US Open is not out of reach, it would be hard work.  A semi-final result will almost certainly be required for such a seeding heading into the US Open, but the most likely opponents he would meet along the way would be Gasquet, Simon (je suis tres desole, Robert), Berdych, and Ferrer, in that order.  Top-seeded Roger Federer would be the most likely opponent in the semi-final, as he and Djokovic battle it out in Cincy to see who will be #1 heading into the US Open (read more in the ATP article here).

N.B.: It's very nice to see Roger Federer's name on the right part of the draw!  My favorite thing about Djokovic's quarter of he draw is that we will very likely see a rematch of the Toronto semi-final with 7th-seeded Janko Tipsarevic, this time in the QFs.  I think Tipsarevic deserved a better result than what the scoreline read in Toronto, and it looks like he'll get his chance.  Both of these top Serbian players are extreme competitors, but also know how to get along well in the locker rooms, the evidence would suggest.  This pic was tweeted by Janko Tipsarevic during the rain delay late on that Saturday evening (their match finished just before midnight): click to enlarge

http://instagr.am/p/ONY2lwAHMp/

https://twitter.com/TipsarevicJanko/status/234457683418288128

--wacb