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

Canada clinches Davis Cup tiebreak vs. Mexico

Milos Raonic took on Daniel Garza in the first of two singles matches today in Teluca, Mexico. With Canada's win in the doubles yesterday, Raonic could clinch the tiebreak for Canada in his rubber match against Garza. And he did just that, winning in straights sets, 7-5, 6-3, 6-2.

Garza took the lead early in the first set after Raonic played a sloppy service game. Milos dug himself into a 0-40 hole after making a few errors, and Garza was able to capitalize on the gift. By working his way into some longer rallies, Raonic was able to get his backhand in order and clean up his game a little. Late in first set, Milos came from behind to win three straight games from 4-5 down.

Garza was visibly frustrated and disappointed when he couldn't close out the first set. Despite this, he stayed with Raonic throughout most of the second set. Raonic was able to comfortably serve his way out of trouble whenever Garza challenged him. It seemed like Garza had to fight off a break point or two in each of his service games, so it seemed inevitable that he was broken at 3-4. From there, Raonic took a 5-3 lead and held at love to take the second set.

This was when Milos began to show why he's ranked No.37 in the world. In the third set he broke Garza at love twice, exhibiting some excellent shot-making in the process. Raonic's serve improved greatly as the match progressed, earning 24 aces and winning an overwhelming amount of his first serve points (above 90%, I believe). There would be no comeback for Garza this time as Raonic ran away with the third set in a dominating performance.

In the final rubber match between Peter Polansky and Manuel Sanchez, Canada won in straight sets again, 6-4, 6-1. Since the Group tiebreak was already clinched, the last singles match was played as a best-of-three instead of best-of-five. Canada will advance to meet Ecuador in the second round of the Group 1 Americas in July. That means the Canadian team is one step closer to earning a spot in the World Group for 2012. View the results of the tiebreak here.

It was a solid performance all around by the Canadians, especially by Milos. In a post-match interview, Raonic made it clear that he was proud to play for Canada and alluded to his responsibilities as the No.1 player within the team. It's no secret that he's the best player, and it's important for Raonic to comport himself as such. This means winning the matches he's supposed to win, and he's proven this weekend that he can do just that.

-multi