Raonic Update – AAMI Kooyong Classic and Australian Open 2013 draw and schedule « Milos Raonic

10Jan/13Off

Raonic Update – AAMI Kooyong Classic and Australian Open 2013 draw and schedule

Milos Raonic Australian Open 2013 Schedule Update: Tuesday Morning on Show Court 3 (Monday night in Canada/US time zones) versus Jan Hajek

New Update 10:30 AM Eastern: TSN is reporting they will air the Raonic / Hajek match on TSN2, unfortunately not streaming online on TSN.ca "bonus court" coverage. They are estimating start time at 8:30 PM tonight as well. Go Milos!

Milos Raonic (CAN) will play Jan Hajek (CZE) in the second match on Show Court 3 on Tuesday, January 15th. He's up after the women's singles matchup between Kuznetsova and Dominiguez Lino. The women's match will start at 11AM Melbourne time (7 PM Eastern here in Canada on Monday, 14 Jan). Judging by how quickly these matches can be, we'll probably see Milos on the courts by 12:30 PM local time in Melbourne.

TSN will most likely be showing their usual Rod Laver Arena coverage (with the annoying ESPN-style commentatots) so don't expect it to be on TV. It will most likely be on TSN.ca bonus court coverage around 8;30 PM Eastern (10 PM in Newfoundland). If not, you will be able to find it streaming somewhere online (on australianopen.com if you're in the US or if your computer can pretend to be : ) ).

Milos Raonic loses to Fabio Fognini, 6-4, 6-4

Milos was broken to give Fognini the 2nd set. Pics below from TennisTV.com (thanks!)

Milos down a set to Fognini (9:10 PM Eastern)

Milos lost the first set to Fognini, 4-6. Tough hold for Raonic in his 1st service game of 2nd set, followed by quick hold by Fognini. He will serve down 2-1, on serve, down a set.

Milos Raonic draws Jan Hajek in Aussie Open

Raonic is in Federer's quarter of the draw and will play Jan Hajek in the opening round of the 2013 Australian Open in Melbourne. Raonic has not faced Czech player before, who is ranked just outside the top 100 going into the tournament and is 29 years of age. Hajek lost in the first round of the Chennai Open in his opening tournament of the year, falling to the hometown favourite, Somdev Devvarman, in straight sets.

Other notable first round matches include Monfils vs. Dolgopolov and Hewitt vs. Tipsarevic.

Raonic about to play Fabio Fognini in Kooyong Classic

It looks like Baghdatis is about to consolidate an opening game break against DelPo in the Kooyong Classic. Raonic will be up following the match, so I expect he'll step onto the court somewhere around 9:30 PM Eastern Time (11:00PM in Newfoundland), two hours from now.

Fabio Fognini has not yet had the pleasure to face Milos in regular ATP play. The Italian lost his opening round match in Doha earlier this year, falling in a 3-setter to Grega Zemlja of Slovenia. Fognini has yet to play in the Kooyong Classic, he has replaced one of the players who have pulled out of the warm-up event.

Posted by wacb

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TOM
January 13th, 2013 - 02:14

My comment is simple.
Club Matches are over and the Real Show begins at the AO.
I think we will see a more focused Milos next week.
- Tomaso
  January 13th, 2013 - 21:35
  
  Good point, Tom: Milos starts 2013 in the top-30, a.k.a. The Big-Boys Club, with different rules for counting tournament points than players ranked 31+ at beginning of season. Too bad Milos did not perform as well as we would have liked in the first couple of tournaments, but they (literally) DO NOT COUNT: Kooyong was an exhibition, and Brisbane will now be added to Milos’ list of non-countables; he’ll have other chances to pick up points at 250’s. As you say, the Real Show begins with the first Slam, and will continue with the Masters events, which are all mandadory for Milos to count, along with most of the 500’s he enters. Let the Show begin! Good luck, Milos!
  - wacb
    January 13th, 2013 - 23:26
    
    That’s true, assuming he plays Monte Carlo as well as the other 8 “mandatory” Masters 1000s (I don’t see why he wouldn’t since he “resides” there), he only needs to count 5 other tournaments (three of which MUST be 500-level) in addition to the Grand Slams.
    
    He’s already got the SAP Open 250 on his schedule (he’s done well there recently!), as well as the Regions Morgan Keegan 500 in Memphis.
    
    As long as he plays 3 more non-Masters, non-Slam tourney’s, Brisbane won’t count at the end of the year. The only way Brisbane would count for his 2013 points would be if he only chose to add 2 more ATP 500 tourneys, which would fulfill his minimum commitment.
    
    Something tells me we’ll see him pick an extra 250 or 500 tournament to wipe out Brisbane’s result. I imagine he’ll play a grass tournament to warm up for Wimbledon (Halle again, anyone?), as well as the 2 other ATP 500 tourneys yet to be decided. The rules say he has to register for the 500 tourneys 6 weeks in advance (which is why Memphis is already confirmed, starting Feb18th), so we’ll know in plenty of time for those!
    
    Of course, the 19th tournament to add to his ranking points will be the Tour finals in London : ).
Sean
January 11th, 2013 - 12:40

I think it a little premature to be forecasting his path to the final, unless he’s planning on buying a ticket. The way he’s played to start the year, he’ll be lucky to get out of the first round.
- wacb
  January 11th, 2013 - 17:38
  
  Either way, we’ll see him start the attempt on Tuesday vs. Hajek. We’ll see if he can string enough days in a row together in which he brings his “toolbag” (see my reply below) to make a good go of it. He’s definitely rusty to start the year, not impressive so far. Was difficult to watch last night.
- Tomaso
  January 11th, 2013 - 23:40
  
  Of course the “on paper” path is not in any way a forecast or prediction: it’s just Milos’ extended draw. You can do the same for someone more likely to make it all the way (Roger, Andy…) or for Dimitrov, or our Jesse Levine — congrats on that, by the way!! Readers of this blog are realistic enough (yes, from experience!) to understand that when Milos plays (for example ) Lukas Lacko he’ll be favoured to win by “only” about 3.5 to 1 odds; i.e. about a 25% chance of losing. On the up-side, when/if he plays Roger he has a long-shot chance to win. Milos is where-he-is in the rankings because on average he’s been doing exceptionally well; but of course he’s got lots to work on, especially return game and consistency. I hate to see Milos play poorly and lose, but I would hate it a lot more to see him play his best and lose. Over time I expect that we’ll see Milos at his best — and winning — even more often.
  - wacb
    January 12th, 2013 - 01:45
    
    Well said. Watching him at his best is a treat. It’s like watching Federer at his best, it’s painful to see him drop form and lose, for example, like he did against Murray in the gold medal game of the Olympics, after playing so great in the previous round.
cow
January 11th, 2013 - 10:17

Raonic still has no consistancy. His biggest or I should say, big weapon is his serve…and this should give him the advantage during tie breaks, but as I have seen he seems to lose more than win. I don’t know if he is choking a bit during tight points. But my biggest concern is his return game. He almost doesn’t have one. Without a reliable consistant serve and a very very poor return game, I’m surprised and unable to explain his rise in the standings other than to say, he’s had pockets of good luck….
- WACB
  January 11th, 2013 - 16:59
  
  I would agree that his biggest weapon is his serve, and that his biggest weakness is consistency. Sometimes he’s spraying errors all over the place, othertimes he’s hitting corners and lines with lighting speed. I believe that’s a consequence of the style he plays to suit his strengths. The physics of that type of game is on his side due to his build.
  
  I would not call it luck, he’s taking calculated risk playing that way. When he’s able to pull it together, it’s magnificent. If not, well, we see what happens. It must be frustrating for his opponents to know that whether they win or lose has very little to do with how they play, and almost entirely depends on which version of Milos shows up that day.
  
  Return game or not, I think he somehow needs to get his consistency up. However it is one does that. That is to say: he’s got the tools, now he just needs to figure out how to make sure he brings them with him to all the matches!
wacb
January 11th, 2013 - 00:02

Indeed, it’s not bad. He has to face a top-4 player in the 4th round anyways. Though he’s beaten Murray before, Murray is looking awesome lately. Ferrer has always been a huge challenge, and Djokovic seems to own the Australian Open. At least with Federer, their three matches (all in 2012) have been 3-setters, and there’s always been at least one tiebreak involved. Of the 4 tiebreaks Raonic has played with Federer, they’ve split them at two each. The two Federer has won were 3rd set tiebreakers though, while those Milos has won were in the first set (of Halle and Indian Wells).

I really do hope to see a Feds v. Milos 4th round, my two favourite players.