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

Rogers Cup 2011 Semi-Finals and Finals from Toronto and Montreal on CBC (and streaming on CBC.ca)

I have been wondering what happened to the stream on SportsNet.ca ( http://www.sportsnet.ca/tennis/2011_rogers_cup ) and it turns out CBC is streaming the live coverage of the 2011 Rogers Cup Semi-Finals and Finals instead of Rogers SportsNet.  CBC has their act together for streaming much better than SportsNet and it seems the actual quality of the stream is better also...  good stuff.  The live stream from CBC Sports can be found here:

http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Sports/Live_Streaming/1248955900/ID=2053367237

Currently this is the link points to the Semi-Final in Toronto between Victoria Azarenka and Serena Williams, not sure if it will link to the Djokovic and Tsonga Semi-Final directly, but surely you can find it from that linke somehow.  Cheers!

-WACB

At Rogers Cup in Toronto

I write this from the stands at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, the first night for the Ladies here in Round 1. After the current match (Goerges and Jankovic) Rebecca Marino will be up for her 1st Round match. I will try to take a lot of pictures and perhaps some video to show what it's like here at Rexall Centre. I'm sitting three rows back in the corner to the ref's right.

Currently Julia is up a break and about to be another in the first set against Jelena Jankovic.

Fixed display problem with Headers using Cufón

So I just bought a new computer and I don't normally use Microsoft Windows for various reasons but in testing out the pre-installed Windows 7 for the first time I realized the headers in this website that use Cufón to put nice fonts in place of more jagged ones don't actually display in IE9.  I used the quick fix of telling IE to display the page in the compatibility mode for IE8 for now, because it worked before I downloaded IE9, but will look for a better solution later - it shouldn't be acting this way...  and the Cufón fonts do look much better.  See how much smoother they look in the comparison below?

Without Cufón:

without Cufón

With Cufón:

with Cufón

Milos Raonic + Grass = ?

We will find the answer in Halle, Germany at the Gerry Weber Open

The ATP Men's grass court season, leading up to the Championships at Wimbledon, is beginning this week with 250-level tournaments in London, England and Halle, Germany.  Milos Raonic will be playing in Halle with the likes of Monfils, Berdych, Dolgopolov, and the great Roger Federer.  The main draw start tomorrow, 6 June (tournament website).

Milos will not be playing on opening day, so will probably end up playing on Tuesday, 7 June, in his first match ve rsus Pablo Andujar (ESP).  Pablo Andujar is coming off an impressive effort at the French Open at Roland Garros against Rafa Nadal, where he pushed the limits in each set and forced Nadal to win the 3rd and final set by tie-break.

More to follow tomorrow...

- WACB

“Top-Class Tennis” from Novak Djokovic and J. M. del Potro at the French Open

It was an awesome beginning to the most anticipated match of the day at Roland Garros; del Potro and Djokovic split the first two sets 6-3, 3-6, and play has been postponed until the start of the day tomorrow.  It promises to be a wicked conclusion!

Here's a decent article from the folks at RolandGarros.com about the first part of the match this evening:  http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/news/articles/2011-05-27/201105271306526570881.html

Canadian men’s hopefuls go down, women advance at Roland Garros (French Open – First Round)

Raonic and Dancevic lose their first round matches

Milos Raonic's first main-draw French Open journey was cut short today, when Michael Berrer (GER) defeated him in four sets, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.  Canadian Frank Dancevic suffered a similar fate; he was also defeated in four sets ( 6-1, 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2 ) by Simone Bolelli of Italy. (read more)

Wozniak and Marino advance to second round

Rebecca Marino defeated Kateryna Bondarenko (UKR) yesterday in her first round match up in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3.  She will play Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez (ESP) (view head-to-head) in her second round match. (read more)

Qualifier and fellow Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak achieved even better results this afternoon, winning her first round match versus Junri Namigata of Japan with a sizzling 6-1, 6-1 score.  Aleksandra will face World No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki (view head-to-head) in the second round.  Caro ousted her first-round opponent, Kimiko Date-Krumm, also of Japan, with similar ease at 6-0, 6-2 today. (read more)

Schedule of Play

According to the schedule, Wozniak and Marino will not be playing their next singles matches tomorrow, although Marino will be first up on Court 11 in doubles action.  Television coverage is being provided by TSN and TSN2 in Canada.

Raonic through to semis at Estoril Open

Milos Raonic defeated Gilles Simon in three sets at the Estoril Open, 7-6(4) 4-6 6-3.

The first set was close, with both players earning a single break and taking the set to a tiebreak. Milos edged out Simon in the tiebreak, but couldn't carry that momentum into the second set.

Simon quickly jumped out to a double break lead and was mounting a comeback. But Raonic made a bit of a comeback of his own to break Simon twice to get back on serve. Serving at 4-4, Milos was broken again and Simon would hold to take the second set.

It was Raonic who took the lead early in the third and managed to hold on to it to take the set and the match.

Raonic advances to his first clay court semi-final and will face Fernando Verdasco (ESP) later today, weather permitting. Verdasco came back from a set down to defeat Anderson (RSA) and have a chance to play some real tennis against Raonic on clay.

-multi

Might Milos Raonic meet Fernando Verdasco in the Semi-Final at the Estoril Open in Portugal?

San José and Memphis

We all remember back in February when Milos Raonic beat Fernando Verdasco (ESP) back-to-back in the Finals of the SAP Open in San José and in their opening match of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in Memphis.  At match point in San José, Verdasco was visibly upset that a spectator apparently ruined the point by yelling during Milos' tournament-winning serve (see video below and article here).

Verdasco after back-to-back losses to Raonic

After losing the matches, Verdasco commented that "For me that's not a real match in tennis. I hope to play soon against him in clay court to show him what it is to play tennis, and play rallies, and run, and not [just] serve."  This prompted Chris Chase from Yahoo Sports to ask "if hard court tennis isn't "real" tennis, then are we to consider Verdasco's two non-clay tournament titles to be null and void? Does Roger Federer only have one Grand Slam title now? Did Rafael Nadal waste his time retooling his game to improve on grass and hard? Will history judge Pete Sampras to be a lesser player than Gaston Gaudio?" (link)

Since losing to Raonic back-to-back in February, Fernando Verdasco has won only one ATP match (d. Berankis (LTU) at Indian Wells) and his match at Davis Cup Round 1. He has dropped to #15 in the ATP rankings from #9 during the San José and Memphis tournaments.
I have to say I agree with Chris' sentiment there.  Hard courts are real tennis.

Possible Verdasco / Raonic Semi-Final match?

Milos has shown since those matches that he is very versatile and has also been performing well on the clay surface thus far in the season.  Verdasco's only match on clay since was a loss to fellow Spaniard Tommy Robredo in Monte Carlo.  His only wins since, at Davis Cup and at Indian Wells, were on the hard court surface.

If both players are able to win the requisite matches, their semi-final match will be a rematch of those played in Memphis and San José earlier this year.  It promises to be a very exciting match that both players would surely very much like to win!

...  But first, Milos will play later this afternoon (12:30 pm Eastern Time) against Igor Andreev (RUS) at the Estoril Open, a player that beat him earlier this year (head-to-head) - but as stated in an earlier post, Milos has come a long way since.

Go Milos!

Milos Raonic at the Barcelona Open – Update – Day 1

Update, 19 Apr, AM:

Qualifier Simon Greul (GER) defeated Robert Kendrick (USA) in their opening match, so if Milos is successful this afternoon vs. Stepanek (CZE), his second round match will be vs. Simon Greul.  The match previous to Raonic's first round match (Lopez (ESP) vs. Kukushkin (KAZ)) is part-way through the 3rd set, so I expect Raonic vs. Stepanek to start not before 12 pm (noon) Eastern Time, today, 19 Apr.

Doubles

Milos Raonic (CAN) and Nico Almagro (ESP) lost in the first doubles match of the tournament against Malisse (BLR) and Dolgopolov (UKR) this morning.  Raonic and Almagro were able to get 64% of their first serves in, while their opponents only made 43%, but unfortunately for the Spanish/Canadian duo, they were only able to win 58% and 45% of their first and second serve points respectively compared with 85% and 73% for Dolgo and Malisse.  Similar disparity was observed in 1st and 2nd return points won, and in total service and return points won.  The match was not available to watch anywhere on the internet that I could find, so I was not able to watch to see how it was thst Milos and Nico were being outplayed - but according to the stats, they were.

Singles

Milos will be playing his opening round match against Radek Stepanek (CZE) tomorrow, on Court 1, in the 4th of 5 matches to be played there starting at 10:30 am CEST (or 4:30 am Eastern).  According to Sportsnet.ca's schedule their broadcasting doesn't start until the round of 16 on 21 April - so we will need to check to see if it's streaming on sportsnet.ca or otherwise available online to watch since it apparently won't be on TV in Canada.  Assuming 1.5 hrs per match:

Milos Raonic (CAN) vs. Radek Stepanek (CZE) no earlier than 9 am Eastern Time, 19 April on Court 1 at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell

-- wacb

Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell Preview

Singles

Main Singles Draw - Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell

Milos Raonic (CAN) is seeded #15 in the main singles draw in Barcelona, for which the play starts tomorrow now that the qualifying has finished.  The timing has yet to be posted but he will be playing Radek Stepanek (CZE) in his first round match.  If he is successful there, his next match will be against the winner of the first round match between Robert Kendrick (USA) and Simon Greul (GER).  Starting at the 3rd round, his opponents are a little more challenging: #3 seed Robin Soderling of Sweden followed by #5 seed Tomas Berdych (CZE) in order to make it to the semi-finals (assuming Soderling and Berdych are also successful in their first 2 and first 3 rounds respectively).  His semi-final match would most likely be against Nadal (ESP) and possible contenders from the other half of the draw in the final could be Murray (GBR), Ferrer (ESP), Almagro (ESP), Melzer (AUT), or perhaps #10 seed Alexandr Dolgopolov of the Ukraine.

This would be a tall order, especially on the clay surface where so many of his opponents feel most at home, but Milos Raonic, now ranked #28 in the ATP World Tour Rankings, might just be up for such a challenge.

Doubles

Doubles Draw - Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell

Milos Raonic (CAN) and Nico Almagro (ESP) will be playing the first doubles match of the tournament at 11 am (5 am Eastern Time) against Dolgopolov (UKR) and Malisse (BEL) on "Pista Central" tomorrow morning, 18 April.

Also in the draw is familiar Canadian doubles star Daniel Nestor, who is again seeded #2 in Barcelona alongside Max Mirnyi (BLR).  Their first-round bye will see them face either Bellucci (BRZ) and Dodig (CRO) or Cuevas (URU) and Dlouhy (CZE) in the second round.

Visit the official tournament website http://www.barcelonaopenbancsabadell.com

Learn about Raonic's "metoric (sic) rise up rankings" to #28 from this rather comprehensive article on sportsnet.ca http://www.sportsnet.ca/tennis/2011/04/17/barcelona_open_raonic/