Bangkok: Thailand Open 250 « Milos Raonic

24Sep/13Off

Bangkok: Thailand Open 250

Sept 29th:

click for Canadian Press article on CBC.ca (photo: Sakchai Lalit/Associated Press)

Sept. 28:

Milos stepped it up at the big points, breaking Gasquet late in 2nd and 3rd sets to set right the recent US Open loss that stole so many potential points (Milos would've beaten Ferrer too)!!!

"@Tennis_Canada: The Raonic v Berdych Thailand Open final will be shown live on Sportsnet ONE at 4 am ET. #Sleepisfortheweak #CdnTennis #goMilos"

Set your alarms folks.

Sept. 27: No "getting away with it" today: Milos put on a stunning display of how he can serve when he's firing on all cylinders, and backed it up with some great groundstrokes, lobs -- you-name-it. After the match commentator Robbie Koenig tweeted, "That was THE best serving display of 2013!" Nothing wrong with Lopez' play today, but he still managed to win only 8 points total off Milos' serve. An amazing 81% of service points won, based on 86% first serves in, including 19 aces, led to this 6-4 6-3 win. Tomorrow's SF match vs Richard Gasquet will take place approx. 3pm BKK time: Sportsnet ONE 4am ET, 1am PT. Also on tape-delay at 9:30am ET -- thanks TT.

>> http://www.sportsnet.ca/tennis/raonic-cruises-into-thailand-open-semifinal/ << Sep 26th: Milos got away with it today, though it was very close throughout almost the entire match. Not an impressive performance, but good enough to avenge the Washington loss to Matosevic a couple of months ago. I had a feeling from the length of the recording when I sat down late today to watch it that it was going to be a grind... Raonic is up last on Centre Court tomorrow, Fri, 27 Sep. He follows the Youzhny/Gasquet match which starts at 7:30pm local time (subtract 11hrs for Eastern Time, their match starts at 8:30am ET). This means Milos' match will take place around 11am ET. It looks like Sportsnet ONE plans to cover the day and evening sessions, importantly, listing coverage from 8:30am (start of Gasquet/Youzhny) to 12:30pm. Milos will be facing Feliciano Lopez in this Quarter-Final match-up, a friend who he had to face in the round of 32 at this year's US Open (winning in 4 sets after dropping the first set in the tiebreak). The conditions will be a little different but will likely favour Raonic even more. Sept. 25: Milos will play Matosevic third-up (about 3:30pm BKK time? 6:30am ET?) on Centre Court Thursday, Sept. 26. Meanwhile, a disappointing loss for Vasek: down in two tie-breaks to Delbonis. But Genie upset 6th-seed Jelena Jankovic 7-5 6-2 to make it to QF where she'll meet Venus Williams. UPDATE: Sportsnet's schedule (http://www.sportsnet.ca/schedule/) says they're playing ATP Thailand coverage from 1 AM to 5 AM, so it looks like we only get the first 4 hours. Hopefully that will be extended now that we know when Milos plays... Or perhaps they'll switch it to another channel that's showing re-runs of sports commentary. Sept. 24: Indoor hardcourt should be good for Milos who is seeded third behind Berdych and Gasquet and has a first-round bye. But he'll face a challenge second round from a strong Marinko Matosevic, who beat Milos in straight sets in their last meeting, in Washington, and who won his first round match 6-1 6-1. Meanwhile, other Canadians are doing well. At the Kuala Lumpur 250, after a slow start, 7th seeded (!) Vasek Pospisil defeated V. Hanescu 1-6 6-1 6-3; he'll face F. Delbonis in the second round. And in Tokyo our Genie Bouchard, after defeating Monica Puig in the first round 6-0 6-4, upset 9th-seed Sloane Stephens 5-7 7-6(7) 6-3. Genie will crack top-40 next week!

Posted by Tomaso

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TOM
September 29th, 2013 - 14:26

BIG WIN for the BIG GUY
Daniel
September 29th, 2013 - 09:56

Well done Milos!!! Beating 2 Top 10 Players within 24 Hours…very impressive. Milos really stepped up his Return Game since Montreal. Onwards to Tokyo.
JasonX
September 29th, 2013 - 07:10

Congratulation Milos! Now he needs another golden week here to get in good position for London. All the best lad!
Jacob
September 28th, 2013 - 19:22

I think the best part of Raonic’s win over Gasquet was that he managed to win despite being off his game. We have seen a few games where Milos is on against higher ranked player who manage to somehow win the critical points and take the match, so it was nice to see Milos do the same type of thing. A real sign of growth.
wacb
September 28th, 2013 - 00:40

Looking forward to seeing him make things right after that US Open loss. At the very least this one won’t go for 5 long sets! Will be looking for Milos doing more of the same as what he did today and in his last US Open match (he beat Gasquet by most stats except one important one last time — as is too often the case, the points when his skills let him down were some of the most important ones).
- Daniel
  September 28th, 2013 - 08:43
  
  Hats off to Milos: He beat Gasquet in the Bangkok Semis from a Set down winning 3-6, 7-5, 6-4. He broke Gasquet to Love levelling the Match and to 15 to win it. Gasquet had a couple of Break Points in the 3rd Set on seperate occasions but Milos huge Serve bailed him out.
  
  Hats off also to Genie Bouchard who won 2 Qualifying Match after her run at Tokyo in Beijing. With Genie cracking Top 40 on Monday this probably will mark her last Qualifying Matches in a while as she now gets Direct Entry into the other Major Tournaments on the WTA Tour.
  - JasonX
    September 28th, 2013 - 09:17
    
    Im glad he managed to overcome Gasquet. Hope he wins the title tomorrow it would be a nice boost for WTF. He can still make it but he needs to make atleast a final in Tokyo.
    - Daniel
      September 28th, 2013 - 09:43
      
      To be quite frank Milos should be in the Top 10 and not Gasquet. The Frenchman only pushes the ball into Court hoping Milos making ton of Errors. It’s the only way Gasquet can win.
      - JasonX
        September 28th, 2013 - 10:23
        
        To be honest if Gasquest didnt was so lucky on US Open Milos would already have a good lead over him and Tsonga already. Now lets hope he makes the most of the next 2 weeks and gets in a position to qualify as Murray might not go at WTF because of surgery. So he needs to end up at 9
- Sam
  September 28th, 2013 - 12:05
  
  A win tomorrow would replace the points he couldn’t defend in Chennai and then a tough task to defend his points in Tokyo next week. With Del Potro being added as a late wild card, Milos is now the 3 seed and has a tougher task reaching the final once again. He starts off against Go Soeda, with his likely oponents after that being chardy/llodra, anderson and tsonga on his path to the final. Anderson represents a tricky opponent as Milos has a little trouble handling the other big servers.
  - wacb
    September 28th, 2013 - 22:08
    
    I agree, someone like Anderson can upset this party in a hurry. Assuming the other seeds make it too it won’t be easy to make the final. But this week’s not over yet – hoping to add another 100 points to the end-of-week tally tomorrow… Let’s hope he continues to step it up at the right times like he did at the end of the 2nd and 3rd sets today.
wacb
September 26th, 2013 - 00:27

Way to go Genie! Looks like TVA Sports will play the QF match. Not sure whether it’ll be English or French…

Sportsnet’s schedule says they’re playing ATP Thailand coverage from 1 AM to 5 AM, so it looks like we only get the first 4 hours. Hopefully that will be extended now that we know when Milos plays…
- wacb
  September 26th, 2013 - 00:40
  
  Thanks for making us feel old Genie… From an interview in SI BTB today in Tokyo:
  
  Bouchard: I don’t feel young. I turned 19 this year and I freaked out [laughs]. I was like, “Nineteen is so close to 20, 20 is so close to 21. And once you’re 21, what else is there to look forward to?”. — http://tennis.si.com/2013/09/25/eugenie-bouchard-interview/
  
  I suppose we can forgive her…