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

Two (2) Canadians make the Quarter-Finals at the Rogers Cup Masters 1000 in Montréal, Québec!

Update, Aug 9th: Both Canadians, Raonic and Pospisil, into the semifinals!

Had to watch the match late today, will not be able to watch it live tomorrow either... Staying away from any electronic communication will be hard, but the excitement when I do get to watch it will be worth it! In case you haven't heard:

From Daniel:
"
We've an all Canadian Semifinal folks. Vasek Pospisil won due Davydenko retiring at 3-0 for Vasek in the 1st Set.

Milos toughed out an 7:6 (3), 4:6, 6:4 win over Ernests Gulbis.

If World No 1 Novak Djokovic beats Richard Gasquet in todays Nightsession Milos will vie for a Top 10 Spot tomorrow.
"
So, The Canadian bits of the Order of Play for tomorrow in Montréal looks like this:

Not before 3:00 p.m.
[WC] V Pospisil (CAN) vs [11] M Raonic (CAN)

Not before 6:00 p.m.
[6] R Lindstedt (SWE) / D Nestor (CAN) vs
C Fleming (GBR) / A Murray (GBR)

Then Nadal and Djokovic will face off (not before 8pm) to see who gets to face off against the Canadian finalist (any predictions?)...

Update:

Pospisil and Raonic will play the first two matched on Court Central tomorrow vs. Davydenko and Gulbis, respectively. Vasek starts at noon (12:00) Eastern (EDT) and Milos will follow, not before 2pm (1400).

Wow, happy to be back in business.  Raonic has dismissed a less-than-100-percent del Potro in straights, he and Vasek Pospisil will take on opponents they both have a very good chance of defeating in their quarter-final matches tomorrow (Gulbis and Davydenko, respectively).

Both players worked hard for their victories today, and put on great performances, giving Canada a one-two punch in the Quarter-Finals of the Rogers Cup for the first time since 1989.  If they both win tomorrow, they win a date with each other in the semi-finals!

Regarding his visit from the doc and the trainer, Raonic said it was a loss of strength in his arm, a numbness feeling, something he had to get under control.  He said he'd managed to find his way through it by battling through, and that he should have no problem getting under control for tomorrow.

Montreal: Rogers Cup 1000

August 8th: Milos is up at 6pm, 1800hrs, Eastern (EDT). Pospisil should be up shortly, perhaps in 45 minutes (2:15pm, 1415hrs). He's on Banque Nationale court after the Paire/Matosevic, which is currently into the 2nd set.

August 7th - Raonic def Youzhny:

Anyone else think the old Milos is back? 6-4, 6-4; Milos Raonic (CAN) puts away Mikhail Youzhny with a style and confidence not unlike last year and the early parts of this year. Pospisil was also impressive today, putting in another great win. Eugenie Bouchard will follow the Williams/Schiavone match with is currently in the 2nd set. Fichman, Peliwo and Dancevic went down (barely) with valiant efforts, and Levine, a victim of the draw-gods, was only able to muster enough to take two games from Nadal, falling 6-2, 6-0 on the Centre Court (Court Central) in Montréal.

How awesome is it to have two Canadians in the third round here at Canada's Masters 1000 tourney??

That Raonic/Pospisil one-two punch will hopefully pay off in Serbia versus Tipsarevic and (maybe) Djokovic...

Aug 7th (morning): Milos Raonic (CAN) is up against Youzhny on Court Central not before 6pm, EDT. There's a good many Canadians to look out for though in Montréal today:

At 12:00 noon Vasek Pospisil (CAN) is up against Stepanek on the National Bank Court. Dolgopolov will take on Berdych following that match, then Frank Dancevic (CAN) will take on Janowicz as the 3rd match on court.

Not before 2pm EDT, Jesse Levine (CAN) takes on Rafa Nadal on Court Central. Levine (CAN) follows the Murray/Granollers match. After the Levine (CAN) match, Milos Raonic (CAN) will take on Youzhny on the main court, but not before 6pm EDT.

Following the Fognini/Gulbis match starting at 12:00 noon on court 9, Filip Peliwo (CAN) will take on Istomin.

Finally, as the final match on Court 5 (maybe 6pm EDT??), Frank Dancevic (CAN) and Adil Shamasdin (CAN) will take on Dimitrov and Kohlschreiber.

Then in Toronto, we have Eugenie Bouchard (CAN) against Kvitova (defending champ) as the last match on Centre Court (following S. William vs, Schiavone, which starts at 7pm EDT). We don't want to miss that.

The 2nd match on Grandstand will be Sharon Fichman (CAN) vs. Jelena Jankovic; Fichman defeated Stephanie Dubois (CAN) yesterday.

As the final match on Court 1, sometime after suitable rest, Sharon Fichman (CAN) and Gabriela Dabrowski (CAN) take on Pavlyuchenkova and Safarova in doubles.

That rounds off the Canadian action today - quite a lot for a Masters 1000! Make us proud guys and gals!

Aug 6th (quick post-match comments): Wow, some tense moments between flashes of brilliance. Milos needs 3 sets to defeat Jeremy Chardy of France. Historic day for Canadian Tennis though, with 5 men making it to the 2nd rnd, and 2 women. Pospisil was great against Isner, that match was a joy to watch. Bouchard continues to impress - hope to see more of her as the tournament progresses (though her next opponent will be difficult).

Aug 6th: Milos off to a good start - opens with a break against Chardy.  On Sportsnet now!!!

Aug. 2:  Draw is out:

>>  http://www.rogerscup.com/men/pdf/draws/2013/MDS_aug3.pdf   << ...and it's a tough one for Milos:   1) Jeremy Chardy ATP#28 2) M. Youzhny #27 or J. Melzer #32 3) (likely) 6th-seed J. Del Potro. Hopefully Milos will rise to the occasion.  

Washington: Citi Open 500

Thu, 1 Aug (afternoon): Raonic loses in straight sets to Matosevic. Double faulted on first break point faced in the 1st set, which was also set point. After serving for the 2nd set at 6-3 in the tiebreak, he just fell apart and lost the set.

Wow... How can he explain this. It's all mental. Anxious when closing out sets. Skill is there, just doesn't get into it, doesn't look like he's having fun, hesitant on points, gets shaky on the racquet on big points.

Coach issues, any have any ideas here?

Thu, 1 Aug (morning): Order of Play puts Milos on Stadium Court not before 4:00 pm (EDT).  Raonic has beaten Matosevic on hard courts before, at the Shanghai Masters 1000 round of 64 in 2012, 7-6(4), 6-3.  Two years earlier (2010) Matosevic (AUS) defeated Raonic (CAN) in 3 sets in the Challenger Banque Nationale in Rimouski, Quebec, Canada.

Full head to head comparison here: http://www.atpworldtour.com/Players/Head-To-Head.aspx?pId=ME05&oId=R975#

According to Sportsnet's Website, they will have "Citi Open Rounds" on Sportsnet ONE starting at 4pm (Eastern) until 10pm.  This should include Milos Raonic's match on Stadium Court.  Directly before their coverage of the match, they will be showing "Tennisography Milos Raonic: 1" at 3:30 pm on Sportsnet ONE.

The stream should also be widely available on the internet.  The official ATP streamer will be showing it and Tennis Channel (in the US only?) will be showing it according to the Citi Open official website.

Wed, 31 Jul: Still no order of play for tomorrow as they just released the remainder of today's schedule after rain delay includes moving Nishikori from Ctr Crt to Court 1, starting it all up again at 10:30. If all the matches are played we'll have a full day of 3rd round play tomorrow (round of 16). [OoP now out: Milos vs Matosevic approx 4pm ET, if not rain-delayed: after Haas vs Smyczek.]

Also, there are issues with Twitter/Wordpress support that I'm just becoming aware of. Hopefully re-twittering the site soon...

Tuesday, July 30th: Milos Raonic defeats Samuel Groth 7-5, 6-4. Milos converted one break point per set (of three chances in the 1st and six chances in the 2nd) to reach the third round of the Citi Open in Washington, D.C. today. The match wasn't televised anywhere so we can just go by the numbers...

One interesting stat is that he was out-aced. Groth hit 10 aces while Milos hit 9. It's unusual for Milos to not win in the ace category. Milos did only hit one double fault to Groth's five, and given that his 1st and 2nd serve points won stats were much higher and he didn't face a break point all match, I think the match probably went more in Milos' favour than the scoreline suggests. While Milos won an expectedly high percentage of 1st serve points (91%), his first serve stat was only 1% higher than Groth's (62% to Groth's 61%). Obviously a bigger spread there would be great.

Looks like TV coverage starts Thursday, so Milos' 3rd round match should be televised then (tomorrow has the likes of Fish, del Potro, Nishikori, and Isner all scheduled for their 2nd round matches).

July 29:  Milos will play qualifier Samuel Groth tomorrow approx. 8pm ET (after the Dimitrov match). Groth, ATP#228, upset Denis Kudla today 7-6(2) 6-2.

July 26:  The draw is out:

>> http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2013/418/mds.pdf  << As fourth seed Milos has a bye in the first round.  In the second round he'll meet either Denis Kudla (ATP#93) or a qualifier; third round (R16) his most likely opponent is 15th seed Nikolay Davydenko (#43). Fourth round (QF) most-likely opponent is Gilles Simon (#16). If Milos makes it to SF he would likely meet Nishikori, and Del Potro will likely be waiting for whoever makes it to the Finals.  Milos' draw could have been better -- especially at QF -- but it could have been worse, too. July 20: Qualifiers for the Citi Open 500 in Washington DC are next weekend, July 27 and 28; first round of the main draw starts Monday, July 29.  As of now it appears that Milos, at his career-high ATP ranking of 13, will go in seeded fourth, behind late-entry Juan Martin del Potro, Kei Nishikori and Tommy Haas; Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was originally supposed to play, but is still out with a knee injury. ATP:  http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2013/07/29/Washington-Del-Potro-To-Return.aspx   << In four weeks Milos has 180 points to defend, then another 180 a week later; but before that he's got three weeks with no points to defend: an opportunity, starting in Washington, to pick up those 360 points by playing "par" tennis; or as Milos says, "Just beat the guys you're supposed to beat."

Wimbledon

June 27: Sijsling defeats Milos 7-5 6-4 7-6(4).

CBC: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/tennis/story/2013/06/27/sp-wimbledon-raonic-jesse-levine-serena-williams-djokovic.html?cmp=rss  <<

June 26: Milos plays Igor Sijsling Thursday, June 17, third-up on Court 18, so maybe 3pm SW19 time, 10am ET, 7am PT.

June 25: Milos defeats Berlocq in pretty decisive fashion, 6-4 6-3 6-3. Milos took 42% of receiving points, 88% of his first serves, 62% of second serves, with 71% of first serves in, 19 aces; only 18 unforced errors vs 54 (!) winners. Berlocq managed only one break point in the match, late in the third set, while Milos was a threat in almost every one of Berlocq's service games. Milos' backhand, though used sparingly, was effective; many good cross-court then down-the-line or inside-out combinations, and nice touch at the net. Great to see Milos' shot selection filling out.

Milos joins fellow Canadians Genie Bouchard, Vasek Pospisil and Jesse Levine in the second round, the first time in twenty-five years **[comments, please!] four Canadians have made it to the second round of a slam together. Next up for Milos will be Igor Sijsling (ATP#59); if he can get past Sijsling he'll meet either Denis Kudla (#112) or Ivan Dodig (#54) who upset Kohlschreiber (retired fifth set) today.

CBC: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/tennis/story/2013/06/25/sp-tennis-canadians-wimbledon-raonic-levine.html  <<

June 24: Milos is scheduled to play third on Court 12, Tuesday, June 25; after Harrison v Chardy, so maybe 2pm to 3pm local time, approx. 9-10 ET, 6-7 PT.

CBC: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/tennis/story/2013/06/23/sp-atp-wimbledon-milos-raonic.html  <<

June 23: Looks like Milos will play Tuesday, as he is not on Order of Play for Monday -- contrary to what we've seen on some betting sites. However, Canadians can cheer for Eugenie Bouchard, first-up on Court 8, followed by Vasek Pospisil, also on Court 8.

June 21: The Wimbledon draw is out, and Milos could have done worse, given that he is seeded outside of the top 16. Milos, in the second (Ferrer) quarter, will face Carlos Berlocq (ATP#72) in round one. If he wins that match he will meet either Alex Kuznetsov (#173) or Igor Sijsling (#59). The likely third-round (R32) opponent would be 16th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber (#18).

Live Draw: http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/scores/draws/ms/r2s1.html <<   Updates daily.

Eastbourne – Aegon International 250

June 19: Dodig d Milos 6-2 7-6(7).  CBC:  http://www.cbc.ca/sports/tennis/story/2013/06/19/sp-tennis-atp-raonic-eastburne.html  <<

June 18: Milos is first up against Dodig tomorrow on the Centre Court, 11am, Wed, June 19th. This is in about 6 hrs from now, which will be about 6am Eastern Time.

Milos has faced Dodig twice before, once on clay and once on hard court (Barcelona 2011 and Kooyong 2013, respectively). Milos won their most recent match in Kooyong in straights, while Dodig won their first-ever match in 3-sets in 2011.

Ivan Dodig defeated Denis Istomin today in their 1st rnd match 6-3, 6-4. Raonic is the top seed in the 250-level Eastbourne tournament and had a bye in the 1st rnd.

June 15: [Thanks for the heads-up, Sam!] Milos has received a wildcard to join the ranks at Easbourne, as top seed. Official announcement: http://www.lta.org.uk/fans-major-events/LTA-summer-grass-court-events/Aegon-International/News/2013/Raonic-Ward--Edmund-Awarded-Aegon-International-Wildcards/  <<

Draw: http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2013/741/mds.pdf  << Updates daily.

Milos starts with a bye in round one; in round two will play either Denis Istomin or Ivan Dodig. If he wins that match things get interesting: either eighth-seed Fabio Fognini, or Grega Zemlja, Martin Klizan or Viktor Troicki, for QF.  A likely SF opponent would be Juan Monaco.

Halle – Gerry Weber 250

June 13th: Raonic and Nishikori lost in their doubles match against Kohlschreiber and Youzhny, so the grass court warm-up's over. They lost 2-6, 5-7 and only managed 3 aces (and 3 dbl faults) between them for the match.

June 12th: Milos Raonic and Kei Nishikor take on Phil Kohlschreiber and Mikhail Youzhny tomorrow, on Court 1, not before 2pm local (after Kohlschreiber has had suitable rest after his singles match versus Tobias Kamke, also of Germany, starting at noon on the main court).

Japanese player Kei Nishikori was also knocked out in singles play, against Mikhail Youzhny today. So Milos and Nishikori will try to avenge their recent singles defeats to these players. Both of the opponents have been on the upswing lately. Obviously it's great practice on the surface, but hopefully there's more rounds to come for the two young fellers. Youzhny did well in Halle last year as well, making it to a semi-final match with the Feds after Roger defeated Raonic. Watch the Roger-Milos quarter-final from last year in Halle on youtube here:

Highlights: youtube video link

Full Match: youtube video link

--wacb

June 11: Monfils defeats Milos pretty decisively 64 62; Milos did not have any break-points, was not able to get much going on Monfils' serve; meanwhile Gael returned well, especially on Milos' second serve. Monfils seemed to be having a good time out there, did not have to really stretch himself that often, just waited for errors from Milos. Open for comments here.

ATP:  http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2013/06/24/Halle-Tuesday-Monfils-Gulbis-Baghdatis.aspx  << [with video]

June 10: Interesting results from opening day: Milos and partner Kei Nishikori upset the top-seeded doubles team 6(4)-7 7-6(5) 10-3 -- super-tiebreaker; see comment from Robert, thanks! --  while dream-team Federer/Haas went down in straight sets to Melzer/Petzschner. And in singles, Milos' possible second-round opponent Daniel Brands, who took a set off Rafa at Roland Garros, lost in straight sets to 254-ranked qualifier Jan Hernych; and David Goffin went down in three sets to 156-ranked wild-card Mischa Zverev.

>> http://www.tenniscanada.com/index.php?title=RAONIC/NISHIKORI-UPSET-NO.-1-SEEDS-AT-HALLE&pid=4669   <<

Milos takes on Gael Monfils first-up on Centre Court tomorrow, Tuesday, June 11: noon Halle time, 6am ET, 3am PT. Watch it live on Sportsnet ONE.

June 9: Sportsnet ONE has Halle on the schedule starting 11pm ET tonight, 2am PT Monday. Milos' doubles match starts at noon Halle time: 6am ET, 3am PT, but on Court 1; will we see it?

June 8: Draw is out for the Gerry Weber Open. Milos is seeded fifth, in Tommy Haas' quarter, Roger Federer's half. His first-round opponent? Not a qualifier, nor is it one of the German wild-cards with 100-plus ATP rankings; it's Gael Monfils. If Milos wins that match his likely second-round opponent would be Daniel Brands (ATP#59); with Tommy Haas waiting for QF, and Roger for SF.

Just on the off chance that Milos does not make it to the Finals, he'll get a bit more grass-court practice paired up with Kei Nishikori for doubles. Of course they drew the top-seeds in round one. (Then-again, unseeded Federer/Haas are in the other half.)

>> http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2013/500/mds.pdf  << Updates daily.

A Coach for Milos – It’s official

Ivan Ljubicic (LOO-bi-chich) will coach Milos through to the end of the US Open in September.

Arash Madani:   http://www.sportsnet.ca/tennis/former-top-player-ljubicic-to-coach-raonic/  <<

ATP: http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2013/06/23/Raonic-To-Work-With-Ljubicic.aspx  <<

Roland Garros

May 31: Disappointing match: Anderson defeats Milos in straight sets, 75 76(4) 63. Anderson played solid tennis, especially receiving; keeping most of Milos' serves in play, winning 40% of return points. Meanwhile on this day every part of Milos' game was letting him down. Take out his 16 aces, he had 34 winners; but also 38 unforced errors. Full credit to Anderson who kept the pressure on consistently; he deserved the win today.

Milos:   http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Media/Videos/Uploaded/2013/5/31/Roland-Garros-2013-Friday-Interview-Raonic.aspx  <<

May 30: Milos is scheduled to play Kevin Anderson third-up on Court 7 (after Wawrinka vs Zeballos) so approx. 2pm Paris Time, 8am ET, 5am PT.

May 29: [Benoit Paire has defeated Marcos Baghdatis, so Milos Raonic is up on Court Susan Lenglen any minute now, about 8:30AM Eastern Time (10AM Newfoundland Time).] A good win for Milos today: tough, but good. Milos dominated for the first five games. But then Llodra stepped up his game, won the second set, and played even through the third. Fortunately, Milos found another gear to start off the tie-break: took three quick points and went on to win the set. He carried that momentum into the fourth set, which he won with two breaks. Overall a good, aggressive match, as evidenced by 75 winners, more than balancing out 42 unforced errors; 33 points won out of 46 (!) times at net; 39% receiving points won. Both Llodra and Milos served well, but Milos won the match on his return game: 75 36 76(3) 62. Next up: Kevin Anderson, probably Friday.

Matthew Cronin: http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/news/articles/2013-05-29/201305291369848427284.html   <<

May 28: Milos is scheduled to play Michael Llodra tomorrow: Wednesday, May 29, approx. 1pm or 2pm Paris time, approx. 7am or 8am ET, 4am or 5am PT.  Watch it on TSN2:  http://www.tsn.ca/tennis/story/?id=424171  <<

Also up tomorrow, about an hour earlier, will be Vasek Pospisil, finishing his rain-delayed first-round match vs Horatio Zeballos.   Milos on RG-TV:    http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/multimedia/2013-05-27/013ee58638f800000b3f.html  <<

May 26: The steak seems to have worked for Milos:  he had two sets, at least, of "red meat" aggressive tennis, before backsliding a bit to lose the third; but he took the fourth set in workmanlike fashion. Next up, probably Wednesday, will be Michael Llodra, who also took four sets to get past his first-round opponent, Steve Darcis.

May 25: Milos just tweeted "steak tonight" -- he and Xavier Malisse are first-up tomorrow on Court 1; will be shown live on TSN2 at 5am ET, 2am PT, repeating at 3pm ET, noon PT.

>> http://www.tsn.ca/tennis/story/?id=423975&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed#   <<  [Don't miss the link on the right "French Open: Ready to Roll" where Milos talks about Malisse and the coaching change.]

May 24:  Milos has drawn to the third quarter, with David Ferrer, in the bottom half, with Roger Federer. (Nadal and Djokovic are in the top half.) Milos' theoretical (no upsets) path to QF would be 1) Xavier Malisse (ATP#54) 2) Michael Llodra (#56) 3) Kevin Anderson (#25) 4) David Ferrer; if he could make it past David, Roger Federer would likely be waiting for him at SF.  Malisse is a tougher opponent than we would have hoped for in round one, but Milos should be able to handle him. Overall, probably not a bad draw.

>> http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/scores/draws/ms/r2s2.html  << Updates daily.

Help Wanted: A Coach for Milos

Open post, since we have some unanticipated time on our hands before the Roland Garros draw, for news, speculation, gossip, etc. about the job opening on Milos' team. To start us off:

>> http://www.sportsnet.ca/tennis/former-tennis-coach-casey-curtis-says-milos-raonic-should-take-more-risks/   <<

>> http://www.10sballs.com/2013/05/15/milos-raonic-and-coach-blanco-separate/    <<

>> http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2013/05/raonic-splits-coach-blanco/47448/  <<

Internazionali BNL d’Italia – Rome 1000

May 13: Kohlschreiber d Milos 76(2) 64.  The first set was close: even on stats except for two df's from Milos. But in the second set Kohlscreiber won twice as many return points -- including one-third of Milos' first serves, and had 5 break point chances vs none for Milos.  >> http://www.tenniscanada.com/index.php?title=RAONIC-FALLS-IN-FIRST-ROUND-AT-ROME&pid=4598  <<

May 12: Milos plays Kohlschreiber Monday, May 13 at 7pm local time [1pm ET, 10am PT].

**Breaking News** -- Galo Blanco is no longer Milos' coach. They broke their relationship in Madrid, after two and a half years of success, which saw Milos rise from ATP#224 to #14, winning four titles along the way. The break is mutual and amicable. "I am grateful for all that Galo has done. He has helped me grow as a player and a person. Would not be where I am if not for him."  >> http://www.sportsnet.ca/tennis/raonic-splits-with-tennis-coach-blanco/ <<

May 11: Draw is out: Milos plays Phillipp Kohlschreiber (ATP#22) first round. Phillip has been playing well on clay recently: made it to the Finals in Munich, Semis in Barcelona. If successful first round, Milos would play either Albert Ramos (ATP#65) or a Jan Hajek. Ramos has also been playing well on clay, taking Stan Wawrinka to three sets in Oeiras, beating Nishikori in R16 in Barcelona before falling to Rafa in the Quarters. Milos' likely third round opponent would be David Ferrer.   >> http://www.internazionalibnlditalia.com/Share/Event-Draws.aspx?Year=2013&Draw=ms  << Updates daily.