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

25Sep/12Off

BKK draw

[Sept.22] — Draw: pretty-much my wish-list! [ATP Rankings as of today]
“On paper” Milos meets:
1. Bye 2. M. Matosevic [60] 3. J. Nieminen [39] 4. R. Gasquet [14] 5. J.Tipsarevic [9]
Meanwhile, Gasquet has :
1. Bye 2. G. Dimitrov [59] 3. B. Tomic [42] 4. M. Raonic [15] 5. —-
Theoretically no tougher than Milos’ draw, but perhaps more interesting: three young bloods in a row.
And Tipsarevic meets:
1. Bye 2. R. Haase [49] 3. F. Verdasco [23] 4. G. Simon [20] 5. M. Raonic [15]
Watch out for “ringer” Kevin Anderson [35] to come through Qualifying and meet either R. Haase or G. Monfils or J. Nieminen or G. Dimitrov! (And of course Monfils is a bit of a ringer himself!)
A couple of other matches to watch:
Round 1: I. Karlovic [90] v. M. Matosevic [60]
Round 2: G. Monfils [44] v. V. Troicki [31]
Main draw first round begins Monday; Milos will play second round Wednesday or Thursday. [Meanwhile he and his team are getting some well-deserved R&R time at the tropical paradise of Koh Samui, a one-hour flight from Bangkok.] Looking forward to some exciting matches! Go Milos!

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20Sep/12Off

Davis Cup results from Montréal and Thailand Open next week…

DAVIS CUP and BKK — [Sept.17] All ended well in Montreal, despite disappointing attendance — what happened there, Montreal fans?? Did you not learn from us in Vancouver?? — and the doubles loss. I think Milos played well against a “risen to the occasion” Stoltz, and better against Van der Merwe. As usual Milos’ after-match comments were right-on, though I think he was a bit hard on himself in saying he “waited for Stolz to lose” — this was no Sam Querrey; Milos did not let Stolz into the match at any time. And once Milos was up a set-and-break against Van der Merwe it was nice to see him trying out some not-quite-match-ready shots and plays; that’s the time to do it!

But I’m glad that Milos is making “do not wait for the other guy to lose” a mantra; getting into that habit will hopefully pay off when he’s up against top-30 and top-10 players. And I’m guessing that Galo Blanco included that line in the copious notes he was taking during the Friday match. I did notice that Galo did not feel the need to take notes on Sunday: and just enjoyed the match, along with the rest of the team and with Canadian tennis fans.

Next up is Bangkok. Draw is not out yet, but I’m putting in my wish-list: I would like to see Milos play Tipsarevic, but in the FINAL; so hopefully Milos will be on Gasquet’s side of the draw; will be a test for Milos, but one I think he can pass. That will put Simon on Tipsarevic’s side; I think I would prefer to see Troicki and Verdasco on that side as well. Which would put either Chardy or Nieminen in Milos’ quarter. Players in the mix for second round [Milos will have a first-round bye] include Tomic, Dimitrov, Karlovic and Monfils. Personally I would prefer Karlovic, since a) he’s often compared to Milos as another “big server” and b) his current ATP ranking is 90.

{submitted by Tomaso (thanks) }

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3Sep/12Off

Andy Murray defeats Milos Raonic – September 3rd, US Open 2012

Update: Match starts at 7:30 on Ashe, Williams sisters bumped to Armstrong for their doubles match.

http://twitter.com/MilosRaonicBlog/status/242740545145942016

The Milos Raonic Canada Fan Blog on Twitter @MilosRaonicBlog

So, when I'm able, I tweet and retweet interesting stuff about Milos and tennis. Also, during matches I'm able to watch (I do have to do actual work sometimes...) I'l add my own 2 cents about what's going on.

I usually tweet something when I create a post on the site of any significance (as solely determined by me).

So, if you want, follow me @MilosRaonicBlog !

http://twitter.com/MilosRaonicBlog/status/242720376218611712

Milos Raonic will take on Andy Murray tonight under the lights at Arthur Ashe Stadium, the 4th round match we've been waiting for...

Raonic's Post-Match Press:

After his win on Saturday versus James Blake (USA), Raonic had this to say:

Murray's Post-Match Press:

Andy Murray had this to say bout his win over Feliciano Lopez of Spain, and the much-anticipated 4th-round match with Milos:

Bonus... A try-out of a "Google+ hangout" by US Open, a Q & A between Milos and fans:

History

Of course, Raonic and Murray have met once before on tour, and Milos' victory in the Barcelona Quarter-Finals in April, earlier this year, is his biggest win to date (in terms of rankings) and was very exciting.

Read the comprehensive "Canada Fan Blog" post from that match here (remember when multi was talking about the "claymentum"): http://milosraonic.ca/blog/2012/04/27/milos-rolls-into-semis-in-barcelona/

It wouldn't be fair to post a highlight reel from that match in Barcelona, so here's the whole thing for your enjoyment... it deserves to be watched again (found it in English on YouTube!):

The Canadian Press wrote a nice article, worth a read from the Globe and Mail: "Raonic’s confidence high before U.S. Open fourth-round match against Murray"

How can we watch

Unfortunately, for Canadians looking to watch Milos, it can be frustrating.  If you happened to be an American and wanted to watch all of Raonic's matches in their glorious entirety, it would be easy, just slide on over to USOpen.org and pick which court you want to watch.  In Canada, TSN (really, Bell) owns all the rights, so USOpen.org is blocked.  TSN chooses only to stream certain matches, on certain courts, and won't stream the Milos match, apparently, if it will partly be shown during their regular coverage.  This is extremely annoying, since even though there are cameras on so many courts, you have no legitimate way to watch them as Canadians.  That sucks, and I encourage you to inform TSN of your frustrations somehow...

Anyways, to pretend to be an American on the Internet, you can use Tomaso's method he posted in an earler thread (assuming USOpen.org hasn't blocked the IPs):

Not sure what’s happening right now [Saturday, Sept 1 11am EDT] but just in case “technical means” are necessary to view today’s online (and perhaps for future reference) one option is Hotspotshield > http://download.cnet.com/hotspot-shield/?tag=mncol;1 http://download.cnet.com/Sandboxie/3000-2144_4-10371434.html < and always run Hotspotshield from inside a sandboxed browser.

Sorry: links above ran together, messed up second half of message. You may also want to install Sandboxie >> http://download.cnet.com/Sandboxie/3000-2144_4-10371434.html << and always run Hotspotshield from inside a sandboxed browser. If you install Hotspotshield you will want to choose NOT to install its toolbar, during installation. And only run Hotspotshield when you need it. It's ad-supported, but you can X-close ads.

Thank-you Tomaso! There are paid VPN/Proxy services too for those who don’t want the ads. I hear StrongVPN and HideMyAss are good ones…

The other option is to google “live stream sports” or some similar search strings to find a live stream. Of course, take precautions to isolate your browser, as Tomaso suggests, when you’re dealing with sites which have “poor” reputations…

--wacb

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