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

Raonic vs. Gulbis on Sportsnet

The Raonic vs. Gulbis match in Monte-Carlo is about to start, and it will be shown LIVE on Rogers Sportsnet One, as well as the Sportsnet West and Pacific regional channels.

Milos Raonic Press Conference

SEO in Miami – Sony Ericsson Open Preview

Qualifiers and Wildcards

The qualifying rounds have finished and the main draws are underway.  Qualifiers on the men's singles side included Alex Bogomolov Jr., Ryan Sweeting, Robert Kendrick, and Donald Young from the USA and Marsel Ilhan from Turkey, who Milos defeated in the round of 128 at Indian Wells (it is unlikely we will see a rematch, as Marsel would have to make it to the semi-finals from his quarter of the draw, which includes Murray, Verdasco, and Djokovic).

Qualifiers on the women's singles side include Jamie Hampton and Sloane Stephens from the USA to join other Americans like Melanie Oudin and Madison Keys in the main draw.

Of note on the doubles side, wildcards have been issued to the American team of Ryan Harrison and Jack Sock, who will face the Bryan Brothers (USA) in the first round, and to the USA/JPN team of Donald Young and Kei Nishikori.

Also of note, Milos Raonic was not given a wildcard in this tournament - his ranking (currently #34) gave him automatic entry.

Canadians

As previously posted, Rebecca Marino and Stephanie Dubois were Canada's hopefuls for the qualifying draw but they were eliminated.  Frank Dancevic made it through the first round but fell to Alex Bogomolov Jr. in the second qualifying round 4-6, 6-1, 3-6.  That leaves Milos Raonic as the only singles player remaining in the tournament, and Daniel Nestor the only doubles player.

Daniel Nestor's draw as 2nd seed in men's doubles will not be easy to start.  He and Max Mirnyi (BLR) will take on Spain's Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez in the first round, followed by the winner of the match between Djokovic/Murray and Stakhovsky/Youzhny.  As the second seed, they could potentially be facing the Bryans in the finals if both were to make it through their halfs of the draw.

Milos Raonic

Click here to see how I think the men's draw will turn out.  As you can see, I expect Milos having to defeat Devvarman (IND), Ferrer (ESP), Wawrinka (SUI), Soderling (SWE), Djokovic (SRB), and Federer (SUI) on his way to the title!  It would be quite the feat indeed.

Milos Raonic will play his first match Friday, tomorrow, 25 March.  He will be playing against Somdev Devvarman, who is coming off a win against Potito Starace (ITA) 6-2, 6-4 and made a very impressive performance earlier this month in Indian Wells, California in his round of 16 match against Federer at the BNP Paribas Open.

Good luck Milos!

--wacb

Tennis stars to play exhibition soccer (football) match for Japan relief efforts

Top ATP Stars such as Novak Djokovic, David Ferrer, Rafael Nadal, Richard Gasquet, and Japanese player Kei Nishikori will play an exhibition soccer match against the Fort Lauderdale Strikers:

"The match against the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers will take place at Ransom Everglades High School (3575 Main Highway) a couple miles south of the tournament in Coconut Grove at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, March 23rd. A dinner and auction will follow the soccer match at the new JW Mariott Marquis in downtown Miami." - according to Sony Ericsson Open website

You can donate to support relief efforts in Japan via the World Food Programme (WFP) or UNICEF Canada or the American Red Cross.
--WACB

Edit: P.S. - Read the ATP article written after the match here.

Wozniacki, Djokovic – BNP Paribas Open Champions

Djokovic & Wozniacki claim Masters 1000 Titles at Indian Wells

Novak Djokovic claimed the men's BNP Paribas open championship this afternoon at Indian Wells in a comeback against Rafael Nadal, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.  Although Nadal outplayed Djokovic in the first set and at the beginning of the second, Djokovic was able to pull it together and solidly outplay Nadal to win the second set and cruise through the third (as much as anyone could "cruise" through a set against Nadal).  Djokovic is clearly the Emperor of Tennis for 2011 so far, but keeping such a title during the upcoming clay court season will not be easy - and what better place for Rafael Nadal to show why the ATP still calls him #1.

On the women's side, Caroline Wozniacki defeated Marion Bartoli 6-1, 2-6, 6-3 in another exciting 3-setter which had ups and downs for both players.  In the end, both players were happy with their performances at the BNP Paribas Open - and so they should be.  This was Caro's first win at Indian Wells and it raises her total to 14 titles on the WTA tour.

Official Tournament Article on WTA (Women's) Final
Official Tournament Article on ATP (Men's) Final
MP3 - Craig Gabriel Reviews the Final (Official Tournament Audio Review of the Finals)

Go to the Head-to-Head and click on "stats" by this or any other match to see the numbers...

--WACB

Milos Raonic defeated by Ryan Harrison at Indian Wells, California

Harrison Earns the right to play against Roger Federer

I just watched the best match of the BNP Paribas Open thus far.  Milos Raonic's run at Indian Wells has ended but not from lack of effort.  The young Canadian faced an even younger American who has been playing very well at Indian Wells... but he stepped it up a notch this time.

In the first set both players held their serve through to the tie-break, at which time Ryan Harrison stepped it up and won the tie-break handily.  The second set was the same until the end, where Raonic broke Harrison in the 10th game to win 6-4.  In his service game to start the next set though, he was broken by Harrison who consolidated in his next game.  Harrison would break Raonic again before Raonic got one of them back with great rallies and excellent winners from both sides.  The thrilling end came on an ace from Harrison - putting an end to a suspenseful set which, near its end, showcased very high level tennis by two young players showing the promise of good North American rivalry down the road.

UNCREDIBLE!

-- WACB

National Post Article (the first big news network to post an article about the match)

Del Potro def. Tipsarević – Delray Beach ITC Finals

This afternoon in Delray Beach, FL, Juan Martin del Potro defeated Janko Tipsarević 6-4, 6-4 in slightly under 2 hours at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships.

Del Potro had been seeking his first title since going out with a wrist injury after the 2009 season and Tipsarević was looking for his first ever ATP World Tour title.  Before the match, both del Potro and his coach had mentioned that he was tired after playing 3 weeks of tennis leading up to this final and that did show during the match, with del Potro frequently attempting to end points quickly.  In their one previous match Tipsarević was only able to win 5 games against del Potro in defeat (link).

In the first set Tipsarević came out well, winning the first game (on his serve) at love.  In the 4th game he was upset with the referee over a call that would have given him the break but he eventually did break del Potro anyway and consolidated with a win in the following game to make it 4-1 in his favour.  Up to that point, del Potro's body language had not been positive and he seemed to be showing the fatigue he'd mentioned before the match.  Del Potro really stepped up after this though, at about half-way through the set, and outplayed Tipsarević to win the next 5 games - taking the set at 6-4.

The first 4 games were holds in the second set, with the only break in the set on Tipsarević's serve by del Potro in the 5th game.  The rest of the games were holds and were mostly unremarkable until del Potro held his serve in the 10th game to win the second set 6-4.  With this Juan Martin del Potro won his first title since making a comeback after missing the 2010 season due to injury.

After this week's tournaments in Dubai, Aculpoco, and Delray Beach, the Davis Cup first round is on deck next week followed by two hard-court ATP Masters (1000 point) tournaments in Indian Wells, California and Miami. Florida in March.  Milos Raonic's name is not in the draws for those tournaments right now (link1, link2) but whether he gets a wildcard or has to qualify, he will surely make an impact.

--  WACB

New “Flag Counter” on the SideBar

I added a "Flag Counter" on the right hand sidebar to track locations of visitors to our pages, and commented on the previous post that our first non-Canadian visitor was Spanish (and speculated that it might be Ferrer or Verdasco - probably Verdasco).

So...
I realize Verdasco and Ferrer are in Mexico and not in Spain – so what I said doesn't actually make much sense.  Here’s what the flag counter looks like now though in a happy coincidence:

So we have 69 pageviews including 2 unique visitors from Mexican computers, 1 from South Africa, still only 1 from Spain, 3 from the U.S., and 18 different Canadians in about the last 3 hours or so, cool stuff.  Will be interesting over the next week or so to see where our readers are...

-- WACB

“Most hits on YouTube”

After Milos' final showdown today in Memphis at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships he mentioned he was glad he would be "in the description" of the most popular YouTube video showing Andy Roddick's fantastic winner on Championship Point.
Here's the video he was talking about:

If anyone has a better version please leave a comment and I'll edit the post to include it. Just finished the PVR'd match and now heading to take my dogs out to pee...

EDIT: 22 Feb 2011 - this looks to be the popular version on YouTube, more popular than the one I posted originally:

-- WACB

Raonic .vs. Kendrick in Memphis

The game just started in Memphis, so far Raonic and Kendrick look pretty close but Kendrick will have little chance of winning if he can't find a way to break through Milos' serve.

It is on TV on channel 105 or 704 (HD) on Eastlink here in Atlantic Canada. This channel is "SportsNet ONE". If you don't have that channel, please go to SportsNet's live streaming site to watch this tennis match direct from the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in Memphis (link).

The video at sportsnet.ca is not choppy and it is a couple seconds ahead of the HD coverage on cable and the quality isn't TOO bad, considering it is free streaming on the internet... You even get the same commercials as on TV! Not sure if it evaluates your bandwidth and changes the video bitrate according to that. Here are a couple of screenshots to show the quality of the free streaming video on sportsnet.ca:

Many thanks to Rogers SportsNet for providing this coverage online and in HD from every Canadian Tennis Fan (if I may speak for them!).

Also, I noted that the commentator noted that the "online blogs" are buzzing - perhaps he's seen milosraonic.com !   He also mentioned that Raonic is the"Ace Leader" for the year and he's getting "as much" attention as Mike Weir did...  I say he deserves more and I'm sure he will get it! By the time Montréal comes along, it will be an extremely exciting time for Canadian Tennis.

To this end, MilosRaonic.com will continue to grow and I'm planning to include discussion forums, perhaps multiple blogs (this is the first one - for Canadian fans), links, and generally a hub for fans of Milos Raonic.  If anyone has any suggestions about what they would like to see on the site, please leave a comment!

Way to go Milos, keep it up!

-- WACB

P.S. A new Radiohead album, "The King of Limbs" is on it's way, go check out www.thekingoflimbs.com for more info. Also, check out their first music video apparently from the album below: