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

Memphis finals today

The match-up for the finals in Memphis was set yesterday after Andy Roddick (1) defeated Juan Martin del Potro in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4. Raonic was able to pull out a victory in 3 sets against Mardy Fish earlier in the day to secure his spot in the finals. Here's what an article over at the Regions Morgan Keegan tournament website has to say about the two finalists:

Coming into the tournament, there were copious amounts of buzz around two men: Andy Roddick and Milos Raonic. One is America's top player, a former World No.1 and US Open champion; the other is Canada's top player, and a potential future World No.1 and Grand Slam champion. On Sunday in Memphis they'll serve up a US-Canada battle for the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships title.

Potential No.1? Future Grand Slam champion? Given the timing of Raonic's arrival on the world stage and the changing nature of the game, I don't think these comments are outside the realm of possibility. It won't be long until there's room at the top of the rankings, and the guys who have been hogging all the Major titles won't be around forever. As Raonic develops as a player over the next year or two I think there will be more parity at the top of Men's tennis, or at least there will be more room for players to break through and win Majors. Of course, I could be totally wrong about this, which is why I generally steer clear of prognosticating about the future of sports. I've learned my lesson from trying to pick the winners for NFL games. But it's hard to resist in this case, considering the kinds of results Raonic has been having on tour lately.

Before the singles final goes ahead, the doubles final must be played. As it happens, Raonic isn't the only Canadian playing tennis today in Memphis. Canadian doubles veteran Daniel Nestor and his teammate Max Mirnyi (BLR) are also in the finals of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships. On top of this, Canada was also represented in the Women's singles final yesterday. Rebecca Marino is another rising star in Canadian tennis that had a great tournament in Memphis. Unfortunately, due to injury, she wasn't able to fully compete for the title and had to retire in the final against Magdalena Rybarikova. You can read about it here. More on Marino and Raonic in Memphis here. Hopefully she'll be able to recover and get back out on court soon.

It looks like Rogers Sportsnet will be carrying the singles final on all channels starting at 4:00PM ET. I think it was originally scheduled to be played only on Sportsnet One, but I'm guessing since Raonic made the finals they're going to do the right thing and bring the match to as wide an audience as possible.

Put your game faces on, Canada!

Good luck in the finals, y'all.

-multi

New Headlines on tsn.ca, same pictures.

TSN.CA's Tennis section is again dominated by Milos.  Here is a screenshot of the headline earlier this morning on the website:

Of course, you will recognize this photo from their coverage of the Australian Open in January and now, as then, it is kind of a funny picture to show (even though it may show excellent form and tireless determination in his face).

Later today, TSN was re-using another Aussie Open photo in their new headline story.  It is too bad they didn't use any photos from San José.  This photo is better than the one from earlier this morning at least - and it shows the Canadian Flag in the background to boot!