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

Raonic def. Stepanek in Barcelona

Milos Raonic defeated Radek Stepanek (CZE) today in straight sets, 6-4 6-2. With the win, Raonic advances to the second round of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell.

Things were looking good for Milos early in the match. With Stepanek struggling to win points off his second serve, Raonic got the early break. Despite a low 1st serve %, Raonic was near perfect on 1st serve points winning 11/12. The lone break would be enough for Milos to win the set comfortably, not having to face a single break point along the way.

Just like in the first, Raonic didn't waste any time taking the lead in the second set. Milos backed up the early break by raising his 1st serve % and hitting a few aces. Stepanek still wasn't able to challenge Raonic's serve, and was having all kinds of trouble holding his own. Milos broke Radek for the second time to open up the lead to 5-2, and promptly served out the match with relative ease.

This was a solid performance by Milos, who was clearly dominant on his serve. It must be the new haircut. Next up for Milos is Simon Greul of Germany. The two have met only once before in Johannesburg earlier this year, where Greul won the match in straight sets. But if Milos can continue to serve as well as he did today, then I like his chances to even up the head-to-head record. Their match will be last on Court 1 tomorrow, which should be sometime early in the afternoon here on the east coast of Canada.

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Ferrer gives Raonic a lesson in clay court tennis

There's no point in sugar coating it. No.4 seed David Ferrer (ESP) defeated Milos Raonic today in straight sets, 6-1 6-5. Milos just wasn't at his best today, which he needed to be in order to give himself a chance against a tough clay court player like Ferrer. The slower conditions on the court would certainly did not play to Milos' advantage. In the end, Ferrer's experience and steady play proved to be too much for Raonic to handle.

Ferrer's dogged defensive play was giving Milos trouble from the very start of the match. The unforced errors for Milos began to pile up early, but he was still able to hit some heavy forehand shots to push Ferrer around the court and win some points. Raonic managed to end a few points quickly when he came in behind a big first serve, but ultimately couldn't employ this tactic consistently enough to protect his serve. Ferrer broke on his first opportunity of the match with Raonic serving at 1-2. Milos got a chance to break back in the following game, but wasn't able to convert on his single break point chance. From there, Ferrer ran away with the first set in 35 minutes.

To start the second, Ferrer was exhibiting some great baseline tennis while Raonic was still making errors. Raonic was broken to open the set and Ferrer jumped out to the early lead. The first (and only) ace for Milos came in his second service game of the second set. Some better hitting from Raonic earned him a break at love to get back on serve at 2-2. But the errors slowly crept back into Raonic's game, mainly on the forehand side. Midway through the set, Raonic tried to change things up by coming to the net more often. The strategy might have worked if he didn't miss so many volleys and if Ferrer wasn't constantly coming up with great passing shots from all over the court. Ferrer would break Raonic's serve two more times to take the set and the match.

So just like at the Australian Open this year, it was Ferrer who ended Milos' run in his first clay court ATP 1000 event. When the players approached the net to shake hands after the match, I think I heard Raonic thank Ferrer for the lesson. Nothing wrong with learning from one of the best clay court players around, and getting paid to do it.

Read what Milos had to say about the match here.

Despite the loss, Raonic will move into the top 30 when the new rankings come out after the this tournament. This is obviously good news when it comes to being seeded at the French Open and getting a favourable draw. But for now, we'll be looking forward to seeing Milos on the clay in Barcelona next week.

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Raonic def. Gulbis in straight sets

Milos Raonic defeated Ernests Gulbis (LAT) in straight sets today at the Monte-Carle Rolex Masters, 6-4, 7-5. It was a tight match that took 91 minutes to settle in Raonic's favour, who proved to be the more solid player when it counted.

Both players came out serving well to open the first set. It was Raonic who was able to get the first break of the match after a few untimely errors by Gulbis. But Raonic couldn't consolidate the break and Gulbis broke back in the following game. The turning point of the set came when Gulbis was attempting to return a drop shot and the umpire intervened calling a double bounce. The point went to Raonic, and Gulbis was visibly frustrated by the call. Raonic was able to get the break in that game and would hold onto the lead to take the first set 6-4.

Gulbis settled down after what he thought was an unfair call and looked steady in the second set. Raonic needed every big first serve he could get in order to keep from falling behind early. With Gulbis challenging in Raonic's fourth service game, Milos hit an emphatic smash winner from deep in the court. He followed that up with a huge ace to hold serve and put the pressure back on Gulbis. This proved to be another turning point in the match. Raonic kept that momentum going into Gulbis' next service game and got the break rather quickly to take a 5-4 lead. Serving for the match, it looked like Milos was going to hold at love for the win -- but at 40-0 he threw in his first double fault of the match and gave Gulbis an opening. From there, Gulbis battled his way to deuce and put together some great winners to break Raonic and stay in the match. Some spotty play by Gulbis resulted in Raonic breaking back at love and getting another chance to serve for the match. This time, Raonic made no mistake and won in style by hitting an ace on his fifth match point.

For the most part, Raonic looked solid on his serve except for that slight anomaly when trying to close out the match. His first serve percentage fell off a bit in the second set, but he ended up winning more of those points compared to the first set. Most of Milos' 7 aces came in the second set, which helped him out of a few jams when Gulbis was putting together some good rallies. Overall, it was a good win for Raonic which will no doubt give him some confidence going forward in the tournament.

Raonic will face one of two Spaniards in the third round, either Feliciano Lopez or [4] David Ferrer. Their match will be decided first thing tomorrow morning on Court des Princes.

What Milos in his post-match interview here.

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Almagro/Raonic out of doubles

Richard Gasquet and Ivan Ljubicic defeated the doubles team of Nicolas Almagro and Milos Raonic in straight sets today, 6-3 6-2. The match took less than an hour.

Of course, Raonic is still alive in the main singles draw and will face Ernests Gulbis in the second round at Monte-Carlo. The two have never played at the ATP World Tour level, so there is no head-to-head record to compare. According to the order of play, their match will be played last on Court Central on Tuesday.

As for watching the matches in Canada, Rogers Sportsnet will begin showing Monte-Carlo on Friday, April 15. Starting today, they are streaming the matches online here. However they are not showing the matches live, presumably because of the time zone difference. This is probably a good thing for tennis fans out west in Canada, as well as for the laziest of us on the east coast who aren't exactly morning people.

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Raonic advances to 2nd Round in Monte Carlo

Milos Raonic defeated Michael Llodra (FRA) in a swingy three set match today, 6-3, 0-6, 6-0. I wasn't able to watch the match live, but judging from the live score ticker it's pretty clear that holding serve was a difficult task at times for both players.

Llodra couldn't save any break points in the first set, but didn't even face any in the second set. Raonic's 1st serve fell to 57% and won only 65% of those 1st serve points when he dropped the second set without holding. But Raonic was able to improve his serve in the third set and Llodra had a tough time even winning points on his service games. Despite the 6-0 score in the third, Raonic still had to save 3 break points to get the win.

Raonic will face either No.14 seed Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR) or Ernests Gulbis (LAT) in the second round. Their match is up next on Court Central and is about to get underway. I know I'm not the only one looking forward to a possible second round match-up between Raonic and Dolgopolov -- two of the most exciting players to watch so far this year. If they're playing anywhere near their best, that would be a real treat to watch.

UPDATE: Read more about Raonic's first ATP clay court victory here.

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Raonic eliminated from Sony Ericsson Open

THE RESULT

Milos Raonic lost his second round match in Miami versus Samdev Devvarman (IND) in straight sets. The scoreline, in Devvarman's favour, was 7-6(5), 7-5. This was Raonic's first match at the Sony Ericsson Open, having received a first round bye for being seeded No.31 in the main draw. After losing in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open, this marks another early exit for the young Canadian in the first two ATP 1000 Masters series events of the year.

THE MATCH

Devvarman broke Raonic to start the match, and held a two-break lead while serving for first set at 5-2. Just when it was looking like a complete blowout, Raonic won 4 games in a row before Devvarman held at 5-6 to take the set to a tiebreak. Again, Milos fell behind a few mini-breaks almost immediately and had to fight his way back on serve. He was unable to complete the comeback however, losing the tiebreak 7-5.

It was Raonic who got the first break in the second set, finally converting on his fifth break chance opportunity in Devvarman's second service game. Raonic held on to the lead for a few games, but Devvarman would eventually get the break back to level the set at 4-4. As Milos was serving to force another tiebreak, he got down 15-40 in a hurry and wasn't able to serve his way out of it. Devvarman needed just one of his 2 break chances to secure the second set (and ultimately, the match) with a score of 7-5.

THE STATS

While Raonic was able to bring his ace count up as the match progressed (hitting 12 in total), his overall first serve % hovered around 50 and rarely improved beyond that mark. Milos also racked up 7 double faults, which often proved to be the turning point in some of his service games. Another key stat in the match was the number of break points saved: Raonic saved just 1 of 5 break points on his serve, while Devvarman was able to save 5 of 8 on his. Devvarman was able to capitalize on his chances much more effectively than Raonic, making it difficult for Milos to sustain any kind of momentum during the match. Here are the complete stats:

Obviously, it's disappointing that Milos Raonic is out of the tournament -- but I'll still be watching when TV coverage starts up tomorrow on Rogers Sportsnet One at 11 AM ET. It seems like forever since the win in San Jose and the finals in Memphis, I'm just anxious to see Milos make a deep run at an ATP 1000 Masters event. There's always the clay court season...

-mutli