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

BNP Parabis Open Preview – Raonic to meet Federer in Round-of-16?

The Draw for Milos

Now that the draws are out for Indian Wells, we see that Milos Raonic is looking at names such as Mardy Fish and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the way before reaching the Round-of-16. The big story, though, is that if he is to make it out of his eighth of the draw and move past the round-of-16, he will need to beat Roger Federer. After that his date for the quarter-finals will probably be Berdych, Wawrinka, or Cilic - after which his semi-final match would almost certainly be Djokovic, who is playing great this year.

Can Milos upset Federer (and cause him to fall to #3 in the rankings)?

In Dubai and at the Australian Open this year Djokovic has defeated Federer. Due to these defeats, Federer is in danger of falling to #3 in the ATP rankings behind Djokovic, who would take #2, and Rafael Nadal. If Djokovic wins the BNP Parabis Open, or just makes it to the final, he will overtake Federer in the rankings. Since Djokovic and Federer are both in the Bottom half of the draw, they would face in the semi-finals if they are to meet at all.
There are some other scenarios that would see Djokovic move ahead of Federer. Even if Djokovic loses in the semi-finals, he can still move ahead of Federer in the rankings as long as Federer loses in the Round-of-16 or before. That all-important round-of-16 match for Federer will more than likely be against Milos Raonic. This cannot be good for Federer, as I'm sure he would not like to be facing the top-server on tour at this critical point. If Milos does eventually move past Federer and his quarter-final match to face Djokovic, the outcome will not matter in terms of the rankings, Djokovic will be #2.

Federer's Result Last Year...

For Federer to go down to Milos in the round-of-16 should not sound unfathomable. He lost in the round-of-32 at Indian Wells last year to Marcos Baghtatis (see those results here).
All of this raises the stakes for Federer and Djokovic (neither of which have met Milos in a ATP match before) and Milos Raonic is "smack-dab" in the middle of this rivalry - I'm excited to watch it play out.

-- WACB

Link to Djokovic / Federer comparison - ATP
Link to Raonic / Djokovic comparison - ATP
Link to Raonic / Federer comparison - ATP
Link to bnpparabisopen.com article about Djokovic / Federer rankings battle

Davis Cup on Sportsnet One

Relax Canadian tennis fans, Rogers Sportsnet will have coverage of the Davis Cup this weekend. The Sportsnet TV Schedule shows that Sportsnet One will air Davis Cup tennis starting at 12:00PM ET on Friday, March 4. On Saturday, coverage runs from 2:00PM-6:00PM ET on Sportsnet East, West and Ontario. Then on Sunday, Sportsnet One has coverage of the final day beginning at 12:00PM ET.

Canada is matched up against Mexico this weekend in the first round of the Group 1 Americas. Milos Raonic will be playing for Canada and it's hard not to like his chances given the lineup. This article even goes so far as to say that Raonic will run the table this weekend:

Against such a weak Mexican side Milos Raonic promises to go undefeated in all matches he plays in as does Daniel Nestor in doubles.

There is a slight discrepancy between the times listed in the article for TV coverage and those shown on the Sportsnet schedule, so I'm going by the numbers I got from the Rogers website.

I've never watched any Davis Cup action before. I always hear the commentators talk about it while watching other tournaments (specifically Patrick McEnroe when he calls matches on ESPN), but I have yet to see Davis Cup on any of the sports networks here. I guess Milos' meteoric rise in popularity has prompted Rogers Sportsnet to remedy that.

Sounds good to me.

-multi

Raonic a wildcard in Indian Wells

This is from an article found at the BNP Paribas Open webpage:

Rising stars Milos Raonic, Kei Nishikori, Ryan Harrison, Bernard Tomic, Coco Vandeweghe, and Christina McHale were granted wildcards into the main draws for the BNP Paribas Open, to be held March 7-20, 2011 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, it was announced today by Steve Simon, tournament director.

So there you have it. Confirmation that Canada's Milos Raonic will be in the main draw at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Indian Wells, California. The draw itself hasn't been posted, so we don't yet know who his opponent will be in the opening round. Here's what else the article had to say about Milos:

Raonic, currently ranked No. 37 on the ATP World Tour (from No. 156 at the end of 2010), advanced through qualifying at the Australian Open this January and proceeded to blaze into the fourth round. Just a few weeks ago the 20-year old Canadian captured his first ATP World Tour title in San Jose and reached the finals at Memphis in back to back weeks. With his results he became the highest ranked Canadian singles player in the history of ATP Rankings (since 1973).

Good stuff. The first round for the men gets underway Thursday, March 10. All the top players will be at the BNP Paribas Open, including (but not limited to) Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, Söderling, and Murray. It's basically a mini-major.

Can't wait for March 10.

-multi

All signs point to yes

Without explicit confirmation from the tournament websites for Indian Wells and Miami, I must admit there's been a little confusion or uncertainty as to whether Milos Raonic will be playing those events. His ranking may not have been high enough at the appropriate time to receive automatic entry into the tournaments, but it looks like he'll be playing. This isn't exactly news, but here is a tweet by Milos from last Friday:

Tmrw I fly off to mexico city to drive to Toluca for davis cup after that I will go to indian wells and miami

We'll be watching for when the draws for the tournaments are finalized.

Raonic is currently gearing up to play for Canada in the 1st round in the Americas Group 1. Canada will be facing off against Mexico this weekend, who will have the 'home team' advantage on their clay courts. Take a look at the details here. The Canadian players are doing much better in the singles rankings (aside from Nestor, obviously), but Mexico is currently leading in the head-to-head record.

Other than that, there won't be a whole lot going on in this week in the world of pro tennis.

-multi

Nadal gives a shout out to Raonic

As I alluded to in a previous post, the Major title hogs at the top of the game will not reign supreme forever. The proverbial changing of the guard will eventually take place sometime in the not-too-distant future. It's physics. But is the future now?

If we are to believe No.1 ranked Rafa Nadal, then the future is now. In this article, Nadal states that the Age Of Dominance (mainly by one Roger Federer, but Rafa himself is also to blame) is coming to an end. Despite Djokovic claiming his second major title win in Australia this year, I think this observation is a little premature. Regardless, Nadal took it upon himself to name some of those responsible for the shift. Murray and Djokovic are obvious, but take a look at who else he mentions:

“I’ve never seen so many new talents,” he added. “Of course there is [Milos] Raonic, the Canadian, who has started the year very well, and there is [Grigor] Dimitrov. They are the two youngsters who have improved the most."

Rafa, you read my mind. (...and blog posts, apparently.)

-multi