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

20Aug/13Off

US OPEN 2013

September 2nd:

39 aces, over a hundred winners, 207 total points won to Gasquet's 195, about four and a half grueling, humid hours, but Milos Raonic was eliminated from the US Open by a scoreline of 6-7(4), 7-6(4), 2-6, 7-6(9), 7-5 for Richard Gasquet. Gutwrenching to watch. Apparently this was the longest match of this year's US Open so far...

On to Serbia for Davis Cup! If we thought this was intense.....

August 31st:

Milos is scheduled to play Richard Gasquet 3rd up on Louis Armstrong court. There is a ladies match and a doubles match before him, and they start at 11am EDT, so his match will probably start between 2 and 3 pm Eastern...

Milos Raonic def. Feliciano Lopez:

More of the same, come on round of 16!

"@NewBalanceCan: On to the Rd of 16 for #TeamNB's @milosraonic at the #USOpen after beating Lopez 6-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4. Will face winner of Gasquet v Tursunov."

August 31st, again:

Some tweets to share with you regarding Milos' ongoing match with Feli Lopez (below). Currently a set a piece with Milos up an early break in the 3rd set.

"@SocialKeenan: Crowd on 17 seems 70-30 Milos-Feli and Davis Cup atmosphere! #teamcanada @MilosRaonicBlog @milosraonic @usopen #usopen #raonic"

"@SocialKeenan: This is awesome. Feli's camp has changed locations because they don't want to sit behind us! @usopen Go Milos! @MilosRaonicBlog"

August 31st:

Milos Raonic vs. Feliciano Lopez is 2nd on Court 17 following a Women's singles match. He'll probably start around 1pm EDT or a little before that.

Nestor continues to impress on the eve of Canada's Davis Cup tournament, winning Mixed and Men's doubles yesterday. He and Pospisil have the day off before facing the Bryan Brothers tomorrow. Here's an excerpt from a quick interview Tom Tebbutt was able to get with the doubles championship yesterday:

"Tom: Do you think that the whole idea of possibly playing the Bryans in the next round made you tight in the first set?

Daniel: No, where the heck do you get this stuff from? What the heck does that have to do with anything?

Security guy: (To Tom) Excuse me…back off.

Daniel: (interceding on my part). It’s okay.

Tom: (to the security guard) He does that to me all the time, don’t worry.

Daniel: Bad question, that’s why I got mad. Forget that question.

Tom: Obviously Vasek (in his singles) had a chance to play Nadal and he was sort of thinking ahead and it’s the same sort of thing.

Daniel: Vasek playing Nadal is a little different than me playing the Bryans after 50 times. 

Tom: How do feel about you two playing against them?

Daniel: I think Vasek’s playing great – so why not? Obviously we have to play our best match but nothing’s impossible. "

----full text: Tebbutt: Roger and Joe diMaggio

August 30th:

Check out Tennis Canada's Tom Tebbutt's post about Canadians in action yesterday:

"There have been a few sketchy performances by Milos Raonic over the past few weeks, but he was reassuringly solid in defeating Pablo Andujar 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 in the second round of the US Open on Thursday night.

When it was put to him after his two hour and two-minute win on the Grandstand that it was indeed a “real Raonic match,” – he agreed."

Tebbutt: A Real Raonic Match

August 29th, update:

Milos played great today, aggression, consistency, confidence, precision on those shots down the line, combined with the most powerful serves at the US Open. 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 for Milos in just over 2 hrs, very encouraging.

Nestor and Pospisil won their first-round doubles match today as well, also encouraging; their first Major match-win and excellent Davis Cup practice!

Here's a story from TSN, but best to check out Tom Tebbutt's report, which he's promised first thing in the morning:

http://www.tsn.ca/tennis/story/?id=430736

August 29th:

Milos is up last on Grandstand today versus Pablo Andujar. It will likely be shown. On TSN or TSN2, so keep your eyes peeled... Andujar and Raonic have played once before on the ATP tour, on grass in Halle in 2011. Milos won that one 6-3, 6-1.

August 27th:

Milos Raonic v. Thomas Fabbiano will be televised on TSN (though I wouldn't be surprised if it moves to TSN2 or TSN.ca at some point, especially if it's a long one. The rain didn't let up, so Pospisil will try to win that match after giving up chances to serve it out- reminds me of what happened when watching the score ticker in Cincinnati unfortunately...

from Sam:

Good start for Canadian tennis. Fichman put up a fight against the finalist from Toronto and lost in the third set. Dancevic through to the second round after a win over Robin Haase in 4 sets. Bouchard through after a slow start winning after being down a set and a break. Pospisil a little tight trying to serve out the 3rd set twice before losing in a tiebreak. Now down 4-0 in the fourth looking to bounce back in the fifth tomorrow if the rain doesn't let up tonight.

Up tomorrow at 11:00 is Milos against Thomas Fabbiano. I don't anticipate much trouble in that match for him hopefully he can finish it quick and with a healthy shoulder. Fabbiano has yet to win a match at the ATP level.

Aleksandra Wozniak also in action later on in the day. Up against Vesna Dolonc who's ranked 90th.

There's going to be quite a bit of rain over night. Hopefully it finishes and doesn't affect play tomorrow so all of the matches can get in.

August 22:  [from Daniel]

Milos I’d have to say has gotten the best Draw possible.

Milos potential Round of 16 Opponent would be Richard Gasquet; His potential 3rd Round Opponent would be Feliciano Lopez. [2nd round, Andujar? ATP#55, 1st round, Qualifier.]

Milos US Open Quarter

[8]Gasquet v Russell, Qualifier v Qualifier, Struff v Rufin, Bedene v [32]Tursunov, [23]Lopez v Qualifier, De Schepper v Klahn, Andujar v De Bakker, Qualifier v [10]Raonic

[14]Janowicz v Qualifier, Sock v Qualifier, Andrey Kuznetsov v Sela, Cuevas v [18]Tipsarevic, [30]Gulbis v Haider-Maurer, Qualifier v Qualifier, Bautista-Agut v Bellucci ,Qualifier v [4]Ferrer

Can Milos make the most of the Opportunity and reach his 1st GS Quarterfinal?

------------------------------------------------------------

Here are our top 16 seeds for the US Open at Flushing Meadows in 2013, with Milos nestled nicely in there:

1. Novak Djokovic, Serbia

2. Rafael Nadal, Spain

3. Andy Murray, Britain

4. David Ferrer, Spain

5. Tomas Berdych, Czech Republic

6. Juan Martin del Potro, Argentina

7. Roger Federer, Switzerland

8. Richard Gasquet, France

9. Stanislas Wawrinka, Switzerland

10. Milos Raonic, Canada

11. Kei Nishikori, Japan

12. Tommy Haas, Germany

13. John Isner, United States

14. Jerzy Janowicz, Poland

15. Nicolas Almagro, Spain

16. Fabio Fognini, Italy

--Will

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  1. Ouch.

    Watching Gasquet v. Ferrer is tough. Gasquet’s up a set and a double break right now. Oh, what might have been.

    By the way, for those annoyed that TSN is not streaming much at all, you can go to “unblock.us” and get a week-long free trial for their service (you just need to be able to receive a confirmation email from them – use a temporary email address). I wouldn’t install their software on your devices as this sort of thing always mucks up Windows, but quickly inputting new DNS server info in your router settings will allow you to watch the 2013 US Open as well other stuff that’s blocked outside the US for the next week.

    • Gotta admire Gasquets ball striking.
      One of the best one handed backhands in tennis.
      He is playing his best tennis right now.
      Milos was so close.
      Oh well Davis Cup Glory awaits.

  2. Milos’s gutsy performance tonight proved he belongs in the Top 10 Club.
    Harder for a big guy to carry all that weight around for 5 sets than a smaller guy like Gasquet.
    Gasquet is a great ball striker and Milos went toe to toe with him for over 4 hours.
    Little bit of character building going on here.

    • Its very disspointing to be honest he should of won in 4 sets at most.
      Really really sad he lost he was the better player for sure in the first 4 sets.
      Now on to Davis Cup he to totally needs to win!

      • Good point. Milos was the better player, but he came up short when it mattered most: when he had match point, tie-break, and the all-to-familiar second last game of the set to let the opponent serve it out…

        This point is further underscored by the “total points won” tally, which was 207 to 195 for Raonic.. Not to say there’s anything wrong with that, needing to play your best on the big points is what makes this sport more exciting than most- you always need to win the match at the end!

  3. Heart breaking loss. Hopefully one day Milos can pull out a win in one of these marathon thrillers. I just don’t think his fitness is quite at the level of the other top players and it showed in the fifth. Looked like he lost his legs a little bit in that final set giving him problems and facing a lot of break points. He did a good job saving the majority of them but at some point Gasquet is going to convert one if he keeps getting opportunities. He only won 54% of his first serves in that final set and faced 12 break points. That is not a recipe for success. His tiebreak record is not very good I believe he is 13-13 this season or hovering around .500. For his serve and the amount of tiebreaks he sees he needs to be able to win more of those.

    All in all a great match just disappointing to see Milos on the wrong end of the result. Missed an opportunity to jump Gasquet (and maybe Wawrinka) in the ranks and have a little bit of a cushion until his points come off from the tournament in Tokyo.

  4. Weather Forecast for the New York City Area and his Boroughs looks AWFUL for Labor Day. Scattered and Isolated T-Storms for the whole Day. We might not see Milos at all.

    • Turns out we did get thunderstorms AND Milos! But still enough humidity still in the air to require Gasquet to frequently bathe himself in the towels between points on court!

  5. Just watched the Lopez-Raonic match. I was happy that Milos won 3 sets to 1. Now if he could only learn how to return service and sustain a rally, He would he could be in the top 5! He does love the net! LOL!

  6. Milos should have won that 1st against Lopez. He was up a Minibreak twice 2-1 and 4-3, otherwise a clean victory. Last 3 Sets was pretty much like against Andujar. If Tursunov beats Gasquet (5-2 H2H for the Russian) Milos will be back in the Top 10 after US Open have concluded.

    • Milos couldn’t put a ball back in play the first five service games in that first set. Once he got the hang Lopez’s serve he was able to take control for the remainder of the match. Unfortunately in that first set tiebreak he lost 4/5 service points which will make it near impossible for him to win it. Good stuff the rest of the way though.

      He seemed a little bit sloppy at the net today as he mentioned himself after the match. He hit a few sloppy approach shots that resulted in a lower win percentage coming to the net than in the past few matches. Hopefully he can clean that up a bit just as he cleaned up his ground strokes from the first match to the second.

      Bring on Gasquet and a spot once again in the top 10 should he beat him!!

      • Should be a good match. Milos has won their only previous meeting and I think Gasquet would still have trouble handling Milos’ power; also, Milos has more tricks up his sleeve since they met last year in Cincinnati.

        • If Milos manages to get to the SF he will be 8th in the race — incredible — might even make the cut for WTF London.
          But first things first — let’s hope he can get past Gasquest and most likely Ferrer.

  7. As usual, we can count on “our man in New York” Tom Tebbutt for the real scoop on what went down yesterday with Milos and Aleks; and with Vasek’s tough loss in a fifth-set tie-break.
    >> http://www.tenniscanada.com/index.php?title=TEBBUTT:-A-MATTER-OF-DISPUTE&pid=4929 <<

    • Apparently Pospisil didn’t shake the hand of the chair umpire after the match… Known to be an emotional guy- which can help sometimes but sometimes get the better of him!

  8. Raonic is through in straight sets. Didn’t look as easy as it probably should have been for him though. He seemed pretty tentative throughout playing on the defensive a lot using his backhand slice. Not sure if that was his tactic for his opponent trying to make Fabbiano or maybe just trying to work on his defensive game a bit knowing his opponent is not very strong. Quite a few poor approach shots that we’re not used to seeing from Milos recently. I would like to see him pick up the aggression and I’m hoping he will as the tournament goes on because he will need to play better if he hopes to reach his first major quarterfinal.

    Pospisil on the other hand had a disappointing result. Seems like he is having a bit of trouble closing out matches (at least his last two). He really should have won in straight sets but failed to serve out at 5-4 in the third then again at 6-5 in the same set, only to lose the tiebreak 11-9. He then had some cramping issues and was down 4-0 in the fourth before the delay and lost that set 6-2 today. The last set he earned an early break to go up 2-0, only to give back 2 breaks and go down 3-2 before breaking to tie it up at 3-3. They stayed on serve the rest of the way and he lost 12-10 in the tiebreak after earning a couple of match points, including one on his serve. I hope this does not become a trend for Vasek trying to close out matches. For Canada to beat Serbia they will likely need Vasek to win his match against Tipsarevic (or Milos will need to beat Novak). Good luck to him in his doubles draw with Nestor may they make a nice run there.

  9. Good start for Canadian tennis. Fichman put up a fight against the finalist from Toronto and lost in the third set. Dancevic through to the second round after a win over Robin Haase in 4 sets. Bouchard through after a slow start winning after being down a set and a break. Pospisil a little tight trying to serve out the 3rd set twice before losing in a tiebreak. Now down 4-0 in the fourth looking to bounce back in the fifth tomorrow if the rain doesn’t let up tonight.

    Up tomorrow at 11:00 is Milos against Thomas Fabbiano. I don’t anticipate much trouble in that match for him hopefully he can finish it quick and with a healthy shoulder. Fabbiano has yet to win a match at the ATP level.

    Aleksandra Wozniak also in action later on in the day. Up against Vesna Dolonc who’s ranked 90th.

    There’s going to be quite a bit of rain over night. Hopefully it finishes and doesn’t affect play tomorrow so all of the matches can get in.

    • I see thay have Raonic on Louis Armstrong but Isner on Grandstand… Difference is only 3 in terms of seeding (Raonic is 10th and Isner is 13th) but I’d expect the American’s would’ve liked to have seen their #1 play; surpised he’s not on the bigger court (though Querrey will follow Raonic on Louis Armstrong).

      • From the sounds of the commentary yesterday the shape of louis armstrong makes the wind more difficult which is a little tougher for bigger flatter hitters. Maybe the organizers feel it is better to keep Isner away from this court because of that? Could be the reason but who knows unless you were actually in the room when they made the decision.

  10. 1st Upset at the 2013 US Open: Kei Nishikori lost to Britains Daniel Evans in straight Sets. That also means Milos will stay at # 11 unless Haas or Janowicz make QF’s.

    Milos will begin his quest for his 1st Major QF tomorrow against Italian Qualifier Thomas Fabiano.

  11. Milos I’d have to say has gotten the best Draw possible

    Milos potential Round of 16 Opponent would be Richard Gasquet; His potential 3rd Round Opponent would be Feliciano Lopez.

    Milos US Open Quarter

    [8]Gasquet v Russell
    Qualifier v Qualifier
    Struff v Rufin
    Bedene v [32]Tursunov
    [23]Lopez v Qualifier
    De Schepper v Klahn
    Andujar v De Bakker
    Qualifier v [10]Raonic

    [14]Janowicz v Qualifier
    Sock v Qualifier
    Andrey Kuznetsov v Sela
    Cuevas v [18]Tipsarevic
    [30]Gulbis v Haider-Maurer
    Qualifier v Qualifier
    Bautista-Agut v Bellucci
    Qualifier v [4]Ferrer

    Can Milos make the most of the Opportunity and reach his 1st GS Quarterfinal?

    I sure hope so.

    • Not to mention Ferrer in his quarter. Much better matchup than the other 3 possibilities.

      Pospisil wasn’t so lucky on the other hand drawing Nadal in the second round. It will be tough for him to go far unless Rafa plays far below his capabilities.

      • Ferrer might not even reach the QF the way he’s playing right now. Lost in Montreal his 1st Match against Bogomolov Jr., lost his 2nd Round Match in Cincinnati against Dmitry Tursunov.

        I wouldn’t be surprised if we have a Milos vs Jerzy Janowicz Quarterfinal. Jerzy got unlucky in Montreal drawing Nadal in the Round of 16 and he got unlucky in Cincy as well as Blake played the best Match of 2013.

        • Couldn’t agree more- not sure why, but Ferrer has not been getting good results lately. From watching his matches it seems he’s still trying very hard and is definitely not happy with his performance, just can’t pull it off.

    • Having a favourable draw has its own pressures, I guess, but better than the alternative!

      1st round Milos plays a qualifier — could have been any non-seeded player, i.e. up to ATP#32
      2nd round “worst case” is Andujar, ATP#55, again, could have been up to ATP#35.
      3rd round, Feliciano Lopez #23 seed; could have been anyone seeded #24 to #17. *[Corrected; thanks Sam.]
      4th round, Gasquet #8 seed, could have been anyone seeded #5 to #8. – [or Tursenov?]
      5th round Ferrer #4, could have been #3, #2 or #1. – [or Janowicz?]
      6th round Rafa or Roger or Andy — learning experience, or breakthrough time?! 🙂

      • Good Company: a total of seven Canadians in the Main Draw of the US Open this year. Frank Dancevic and Sharon Fichman won their matches today to qualify, joining Milos, Vasek Pospisil, Genie Bouchard and Aleks Wozniak in Singles, while Vasek will team up with Daniel Nestor for Doubles — Davis Cup preview?

        >> http://www.cbc.ca/sports/tennis/story/2013/08/23/sp-tennis-nestor-pospisil-us-open.html <<

        • Very exciting – can’t ask for much better all around for Canadian tennis fans this US Open! With Vasek unlikely to make it past Nadal, perhaps he can focus more on the doubles play for most of the tournament to get ready for Serbia.

        • Looking forward to seeing how Nestor and pospisil play together. Great warmup opportunity for the biggest davis cup stage Canada has ever seen.

          • It’s obvious they both take this upcoming Davis Cup tie seriously, so happy to see that they’re getting some VERY good practice in. Guess they haven’t announced the seeds yet, but hope they get a draw that allows them to work up to the tough matches. Not even too familiar with how doubles seeding works.

      • 3rd round he was to get someone ranked 17 to 24 so 23 is pretty close to best case scenario.


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