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

Milos Raonic defeats Dudi Sela in quarterfinals at Chennai, India – 6 January 2012

1st Set

The first set was straightforward for both players, with a first chance for Milos to earn a break point coming on Sela's serve at 3-3 on a seemingly easy overhand lob, but he missed to give Sela 40-30 and eventually that game.  Milos answered by winning his next service game at love.

Serving to stay in the set at 4-5, a forehand error to start off made it 0-15, but then 3 aces by Milos to made it 40-15 before Milos evened it up at 5-5.

Sela held the next game, and a shaky game by Milos in the following game allowed a tense deuce situation and a winner by Sela to get adv.  Milos did get it back to deuce (notably, by successfully pulling off one of those overhand lobs he missed earlier).  He finished off the 12th game with an ace and an unreturnable forehand to force a tiebreak.

An error on the first point in the tiebreak by Sela gave Milos a very early mini-break and a hold for the next two points made it 3-0 for Milos.  A forehand winner behind Sela put Milos up another mini-break to 4-0.  Dudi Sela did get on the board after that on an error by Milos, but Milos won his next two service points to make it 6-1.  Sela did get 3 of the next points on errors by Milos, but a successful challenge by Milos on the following point gave a replay on the point and the win for Milos at 7-6(4).

The first set was a good set, with consistent play by both players.  It was scary when Sela had set point at 5-6, and again when 3 of Milos' 5 set points slipped away, but in the end his powerful serve and forehand won out.

2nd Set

Raonic earned his first and only break-point and break of serve of the match in the 6th game of the 2nd set, winning the game on an error by Sela to make it 4-2.  The next two games were holds by both players.

During what would be the final game of the set, serving for the match at 5-4, Milos found himself down 15-40.  Mustering up that gumption we've seen so many times before, Milos rocked his serve to the end, including pulling off an ace on a second serve to achieve deuce... which, I think, shows amazing composure and confidence, but more importantly, skill, at such a point in the match!

Final score: 7-6(4), 6-3.

--wacb

Milos Raonic v. Dudi Sela – QFs at Chennai tomorrow morning (early)

The quarterfinal match between Canada's Milos Raonic and Israel's Dudi Sela is the first match happening tomorrow at the Chennai Open.  It starts at 5 pm India Standard Time (GMT +5:30), or 6:30 AM Eastern (EST) tomorrow, 6 January.

I can't see that it's being carried by anyone in Canada, but it is being streamed online so we'll be able to watch it over the internet.  If anyone does catch wind that someone is covering the match, please leave a comment here and I'll update the post.

wacb

Raonic defeats Hanescu & serves big in Doubles with Pospisil

Milos Raonic defeated Victor Hanescu this morning in the Aircel Chennai Open in India 6-1, 6-4.  The official write-up from the tournament is here and the link also includes some pictures from the match:

http://www.aircelchennaiopen.org/2012/matches/singles_r2_-_hanescu_v_vs_raonic_m

Also, he is currently in the 3rd "set" of his doubles match, with fellow Canadian Vasek Pospisil as his partner, versus Tipsarevic and Paes.  As I watch now, I'm reminded of how absolutely awesome Raonic's serve is!  I'll update in a few minutes when the match is over, hopefully we'll see another win...

Update: Raonic and Pospisil lose to Paes and Tipsarevic

The final "set" ended 10-7 in favour of the Serbian/Indian duo who visibly had support of the hometown crowd.  The final was 6-3, 4-6, 10-7.  The tournament webpage for the match is at the link below, although it hasn't been updated with these results or media yet...

http://www.aircelchennaiopen.org/2012/matches/doubles_r1_-_pospisil_v+raonic_m_vs_paes_l+tipsarevic_j

This loss marks the end of the road for Vasek Pospisil in Chennai following his loss to German Andreas Beck 6-3, 7-6(8) in the first round after qualifying for the tournament over the weekend.

Milos' next opponent will be Dudi Sela of Israel.  The two have never met in ATP tournament play, but Canadian fans will remember his matches in the World Group playoffs for Davis Cup versus Polansky and Pospisil.  Vasek pulled off a 5 set win in the opener there, while Sela defeated Polansky 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 on the final day of round robin play.  Canada did eventually win entry into the World Group with Pospisil's win on that final day versus Amir Weintraub.

wacb

Raonic v. Benneteau about to start…

Verdasco just defeated Cilic on "Central Court" and

Up next today, 7 Nov, at about 9 am Eastern, is Milos Raonic (CAN) versus Julien Benneteau (FRA).

The two have never met before on the tour, but Milos outranks Julien by 25 positions (29 and 54 respectively).  While Benneteau might have the "home-team" advantage, I have it from a good source that Milos Raonic has won over some of the French fans.

Même si M. Benneteau viens de l'equippe Francais, j'ai entendu que Milos a gagner des fans Français aussi!

Vas-y Milos!

-wacb

Vasek Pospisil to face John Isner in 1st round at Valencia

Vasek Pospisil (CAN) is up fourth in the afternoon on the "Agora" court at the Valencia Open 500 against American John Isner.  The afternoon matches start at 1pm CET and assuming 2 hours per match, Vasek's start time will be about 2 pm Eastern Time tomorrow, 31 October.  (Order of Play)

John and Vasek have yet to meet on the tour, but the difference in rankings tells us that Vasek has a tough match ahead of him.  A tough draw all around for the Canadians (Milos plays Cilic in the 1st round) in Valencia but it's not like either of our two entries in the main draw have failed to surprise us before!  Go Vasek!

UPDATE: Vasek Pospisil defeated John Isner (USA) in a hard fought three set match, 6-3 3-6 7-6(9).

Pospisil will face the winner of the Ferrer vs Verdasco match which will be decided tomorrow. Milos Raonic isn't scheduled to play on Tuesday, so no doubt his match with Cilic will be played on Wednesday, Nov. 2. The tournament organizers are no doubt taking Cilic's victory in St. Petersburg into account and are giving him some extra days off before he has to play again.

-wacb

Valencia 500 Preview – Milos and Vasek

The Valencia Open 500 for 2011 starts today, 29 October, in the one and only Valencia, Spain.

Milos Raonic to meet Marin Cilic in the first round at the Valencia Open 500.

The order of play isn't available for tomorrow yet, but he is not playing on Saturday for sure.  Marin Cilic is playing the final of the St. Petersburg Open (ATP 250) tomorrow against Tipsarevic, so it's a good chance we won't see the Milos-Marin matchup until at least Monday : ), where Cilic (CRO) will definately be feeling tired but confident given his result this week.

Raonic, on the other hand, has been resting all week in preparation for this tournament (he did not play in either ATP 250 event last week).  He is coming from a close loss to Monfils in the semi-finals at Stockholm the week before, so no lack of confidence there either.

The players have never met before in an ATP World Tour match, and it will be a good one to be sure.  If Milos were to win, he could potentially face Dolgopolov in the second round, who is in the same category of young impressive up-and-comers...

Vasek Pospisil defeated Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) today to advance to the second qualifying round where he will face Pere Riba of Spain.

Up next for Vasek Pospisil following his win a couple of hours ago is Pere Riba.  This match will most likely be played tomorrow, but again, no timing since we're missing the order of play.

Update: Vasek Pospisil defeated Pere Riba in qualifying today 6-0 2-1(Ret'd). He will face John Isner (USA) in the first round.

-wacb

Pospisil loses to Seppi at St. Petersburg 2011

Vasek Pospisil (CAN) lost a close match with Andreas Seppi (ITA) today in the first round of main draw play at the St. Petersburg Open, 5-7, 6-7(4).

The first set saw a break for each player in the early parts of the set, but at 5-4 when Pospisil was up while the players were on serve, Seppi won 3 games in a row to win the set 7-5.

The second set was close again.  Pospisil started with a vengance, winning the first 3 games to be up a break at 3-0.  Seppi answered by winning the next 3 games and the match was tied again.  For the rest of the set, the players held serve until 6-6 to force a tiebreak.  Pospisil struck first with a mini-break to make it 2-1 after Seppi's two service attempts, but was broken right back on his first subsequent service attempt.  Seppi was able to break Pospisil once more to make it 5-3 and consolidate it on his serve to win the tiebreak 7-4.

The match was close, with breaks by both players in both sets and each set being decided by a single break of serve or a single mini-break of serve.  A fine performance from Vasek in Russia...  keep it up!

Here are the final numbers:

- wacb

Vasek Pospisil qualifies for St. Petersburg Open!

The other Canadian tennis up-and-comer, Vasek Pospisil, qualified for the main draw of the St. Petersburg Open 2011 in Russia today when he defeated A. Kudryavtsev (RUS) (ref).  He is not listed on tomorrow's order of play like the other 3 qualifiers, but instead he is playing on Wednesday, 26 Oct, versus Andreas Seppi of Italy (according to Vasek's "twitter" feed).

No timings yet but I'll post tomorrow when I catch the order of play whenever they post it in the afternoon or so.

Update: Vasek Pospisil should be just about to step up to Court 2 in St. Petersburg at around 7:30am Eastern Time versus Adreas Seppi.

With Milos taking a break this week, let's take the opportunity to watch the man responsible for our latest Davis Cup success and wish him luck in St. Petersburg!

L'autre joueur Canadien qui on devrais regarder depuis la victoire à Davis Cup va jouer Mercredi, le 26 oct, contre Andreas Seppi (ITA) après avoir qualifié pour le draw principal à la tournoi 250 à St. Petersburg, Russia.

-wacb

Rakuten Open @ Tokyo Update – 5 Oct 2011

Milos Raonic's re-match with Rafael Nadal in Tokyo tonight (tomorrow in Japan)!

Milos will have his chance against Rafael Nadal once more on the hard courts of Tokyo tonight.  Their match will be up second following the match between Matthew Ebden (AUS) and David Ferrer (ESP), so it will probably be after 1 am Eastern, in the wee hours of Thurs, 6 October, before Milos and Rafa make their way out onto the court.  Perhaps this isn't so bad for those in Western Canada, but for us out east, it's probably too late to watch and be functional the next morning at work...

UPDATE: Sportsnet has picked up coverage of the Rakuten Japan Open for the Raonic vs. Nadal match. It will be shown on Sportsnet One and streaming online at sportsnet.ca beginning at 1AM ET, October 6.

Milos lost to Rafa last year in the same round in the ATP 500 tournament in Tokyo, the round of 16, with a scoreline of 6-4, 6-4 (head-to-head).  See a few videos of last year's action here and here (the first video includes interview footage and the second is the ATP highlight reel posted to Youtube by Tennis Canada).

Milos Raonic and Pabo Andujar lose to the Murrays in doubles play in Tokyo

Raonic (CAN) and Andujar (ESP) lost their first round doubles match today against Jamie and Andy Murray (GBR) 7-5, 6-7(2), 10-6 today (October 5th).  It was a close match judging by the scoreline and given the opponents I would be surprised if this were any blow to Milos' confidence for the rest of the tournament.

Links:

Order of Play for 6 Oct (12 noon in Tokyo start is 11 pm Eastern tonight, 5 Oct) and;

Men's Singles Draw from Rakuten Open Tokyo.

Serena misses an easy one… – from Rogers Cup 2011 in Toronto

Serena Williams attempts to shoot a signed ball into the stands - misses twice, then resorts to successfully throwing the ball into the bleachers to huge applause!

What you see is actually Serena's second attempt in a row hit the ball into the stands, and after this 2nd failure she resorts to throwing the ball into the stands, and does so successfully.  That's why the audience is already laughing.  I wasn't quick enough with my cell phone camera to catch the first miss.

Serena laughs with the crowd as she attempts to hit a personally signed tennis ball out into the stands after her victory versus Alona Bondarenko (UKR) 6-0, 6-3, in the round of 64 (R64) of the Rogers Cup on August 9th, 2011, at the Rexall Centre at York Univerity in Toronto.  The Rogers Cup is part of the Olympus US Open 2011 series of tournaments. Looking forward to Milos Raonic and the rest of the men's game in 2012 at Rexall Centre here in Toronto.

- wacb