Raonic .vs. Hewitt at Rod Laver Arena @ ~4:30 AM on 21 Jan
Unfortunately for us in North America (but great for everyone on the other side of the world) Milos Raonic centre-stage on Rod Laver versus former #1, Grand Slam Winner, and home team favorite Lleyton Hewitt, will start at around 4:30 AM Eastern (EST). His match follows Serena Williams' 3rd round match-up, which starts at 3AM EST (7PM local) - Day (AO day 6 schedule).
TSN has confirmed that they will be covering the action live on Rod Laver starting at 3AM EST (their schedule) on the main TSN channel. It is doubtful that this match will be streamed online at TSN.ca since they usually only cover the outside show courts and not matches from Rod Laver Arena. More to follow later on the matchup...
--wacb
Raonic downs Petzschner in 4 sets
Milos Raonic defeated Philipp Petzschner in the second round of the Australian Open, 6-4 5-7 6-2 7-5. He advances to the third round where he will meet former US Open and Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt (AUS).
The serving from Milos was consistent enough for most of the match to keep Petzschner from earning too many chances. However, there were several instances where Raonic fell behind to 0-40 seemingly out of nowhere. All it took was a few missed first serves and a couple of errors for Milos to find himself in a hole.
Raonic broke to start the match, backing it up by holding with relative ease. Petzschner picked up his serve as the set wore on, and there weren't many extended rallies. Interestingly, Petzschner was rocking compression socks for the match. That's not a look you see very often on the tour. Though they probably weren't a fashion statement, but an attempt to stave off muscle fatigue in the lower leg.
Serving for the opening set, Raonic showed some of the finer aspects of his game. He started with a nice passing shot to win the first point, then he hit a blistering inside-out forehand to take the next. Milos followed this up with an ace to take a 40-0 lead. After spraying a backhand shot wide, Raonic put the set away on a very nice cross court forehand winner.
Petzschner found himself with a 15-30 lead on Raonic's serve to start the second, but Milos ran off three straight points to level things at one game all. Despite a low first serve percentage, Petzschner was nearly perfect winning points off the first serve.
Just when it seemed like the set was heading to a tiebreak with Raonic serving at 4-5, Milos went down 0-40 after getting beaten by a lob and gifting Petzschner a few points. Right on cue, Raonic served his way out of trouble and eventually put the game away with an ace. In doing so, he saved 4 set points and kept his unbroken in 2012 streak alive. The errors made their unwelcome return when he was serving at 5-6, and Raonic was once again down 0-40. Raonic wasn't able to save all three set points this time and his unbroken streak in 2012 came to an end. The first serve percentage fell off a bit in the second set, and the ace count left something to be desired.
Not one to waste time, Raonic got his head back in the game and broke Petzschner to start the third. Raonic would earn further chances over the next few games, eventually securing the insurance break to take a 5-2 lead. Petzschner looked somewhat listless as Milos closed out the third set, as though he just came to the realization that the only way to break Raonic's serve was to wait for the Canadian to make a string of errors.
Petzschner continued to appear suspiciously aloof, almost philosophical, in the fourth set. I was expecting him to take off both of shoes and one of his socks at some point. I was immediately reminded of this:
But unlike the Baumer, Petzschner didn't go away and he was soon rewarded with another 0-40 lead on Raonic's serve. Milos made up for his previous loss of serve and put together 6 straight points to stay on even terms. Things wouldn't stay even for long, however, as Raonic was able to break Petzschner in the following game. Service breaks became the norm at this stage of the match and Raonic would get broken for a second time while serving for it at 5-4. But Milos broke back immediately, earning another chance to serve for the match. This time Raonic was able to close it out book his spot in the third round.
Thanks to TSN.ca for streaming the match live for all the Canadian tennis fans. It makes sense that they would show live hockey on TV while this match was going on, but they're showing an encore presentation of the match on TSN2 as I write this. It wasn't a picture perfect performance from Milos today, but he got the better of Petzschner in a tough match and now leads the head-to-head 2 to 1. More importantly, Raonic is through to the third round of the Australian Open for the second year in a row. Not bad.
Now we wait to see which former World No.1 player he will face in the next round: Hewitt or Roddick? And while we wait, why not watch this:
UPDATE: (23) Milos Raonic will face Lleyton Hewitt in the third round of the Australian Open after (15) Andy Roddick was forced to retire due to injury.
-multi
Milos Raonic on Court 3 versus Petzschner tonight/tomorrow
Milos Raonic will be on Court 3 for the first match of the day session at 11AM local time. While the main ESPN/TSN coverage will probably be on the Sharapova match, the "bonus courts" online on whichever website has the rights in your country (TSN.ca/tennis in Canada) should show this court. It all starts at 7PM Eastern Time (EST) tonight as confirmed by TSN's post on that page:
Day 4 Coverage (TSN.ca)
Catch live bonus streaming coverage on TSN.ca featuring Canada's Milos Raonic against Philipp Petzschner, tonight at 7pm et/4pm pt.
source: http://tsn.ca/tennis/
There will also be an encore showing on TSN2 at 10:30pm et/7:30pm pt.
According to Tennis Canada (@Tennis_Canada) via a tweet, they will also have a stream for Dubois' match, which will be on the same time on Court 8. Nestor and Mariono will also be up first in doubles action in the daytime session in Melbourne, but on courts 19 and 21 respectively, so no coverage there. Wozniak will also play her 2nd round match today, but it will be the third match on court 18.
--wacb
Raonic advances convincingly to 2nd round of Australian Open
Milos Raonic defeated Filippo Volandri (ITA) in just 91 minutes in the first round of the Australian Open, 6-4 6-0 6-2.
This match was played on Court 19 which is not a TV show court. Unfortunately, we were not able to watch the match live and had to rely on the Slam Tracker for real time results. Here are the match statistics:
Judging by the scoreline, Milos dominated the match by winning a majority of his first serve points while breaking his opponent six times. Here's a fun fact: Raonic has yet to drop serve in 2012. The Canadian fell behind on a few of his service games today, but Volandri was unable to convert any of his chances. Milos was constantly ahead in the match. He took the lead early in each set and there wasn't a tiebreak in sight, unlike the recent final in Chennai.
Raonic will try to further capitalize on his gathering momentum when he faces Philipp Petzschner (GER) in the second round later this week. Raonic and Petzschner met twice last year, splitting their matches with Milos most recently getting the better of Petzschner on the indoor hard courts in Sweden. Petzschner also had an easy win over his first round opponent Lukas Rosol (CZE), so he should be fresh for his second round match with Milos.
Who knows, we may even be able to watch this one live when the time comes.
-multi
Raonic on Court 19 vs Volandri tonight/tomorrow
Update 7:15PM: Aleksandra Wozniak's match is being shown on TSN.ca right now: link. Her match with Chinese opponent Shuai Zhang is about to get under way on Court 8 as they're finishing up their practice shots now. Still no telling for sure whether we'll get to see Milos on TSN.ca, but it's unlikely as that court is not listed anywhere as being available for streaming/televising - live score tracking here: link. --wacb
Follow @multiformous on Twitter for live tweeting during the Raonic vs Volandri match!
Update 9:40PM: So we don't get to watch Milos actually play... but thanks to @edwin_smith1 for tweeting this pic:
The schedule of play Tuesday, January 17 is out and Milos Raonic vs Filippo Volandri is the second match up on Court 19, so about 8:30PM EST. As far as I can tell, Court 19 is not a dedicated TV show court. This means that coverage of the match (if any) will be limited. Tennis Canada has tweeted that TSN.ca will have streaming coverage of different courts but there is no word if Raonic's match will be viewable.
As it happens, three Canadian women are also scheduled to play on Tuesday. Aleksandra Wozniak, Rebecca Marino, and Stephanie Dubois will all play their first round matches "today". Neither player had to qualify for the main draw as they were entered directly by virtue of their overall rank.
We may have to settle for live score ticker updates for the matches, unfortunately.
-multi
Updated again…: Australian Open Canadian Qualifiers Update and Draw Preview – 12 January 2012
As I sit here watching the rain delay in Pospisil's qualifying match with Carsten Ball of Australia (at 5-5 in the first set) I'll update some of the day's news.
Watch Online
AustralianOpen.com is covering the qualifying rounds in a high quality live video stream on its website. Matches from the main draw will also be available, but it will be blacked out regionally depending on the broadcast rights in your country... here are the links:
AO TV Qualifying (Pospisil's match on now)
Milos Raonic's Australian Open 2012 Draw - Rounds 1 & 2
Milos has drawn Italian Filippo Volandri in his first round match (schedule TBD of course). Should he win that match, he faces the winner of ROSOL, Lukas Rosol (CZE) / Philipp Petzschner (GER) in the 2nd round. Of course, Milos got play Petzschner twice last year, losing the first one in the quarter-finals in Halle in June, and winning their rematch in 2nd round in Stockholm about 4 months later.
Milos' Draw - Round 3
In the 3rd round, the draw is much more interesting in my opinion. The first possible opponent is Cedrik-Marcel Stebe (GER), who Milos didn't meet on the tour.
The next possible opponent for the 3rd round is the hometown wildcard, Lleyton Hewitt. The awesome thing about this possibility is that the atmosphere of the match would be an amazing experience in, most likely, Rod Laver Arena. Such a match would probably be the biggest crowd Milos has played in front of to date (about 5700 attended his exhibition match with Sampras last November while Rod Laver Arena can hold up to 15,000).
Another possibility for the 3rd round, if Milos makes it, is Andy Roddick, who won the epic final against Raonic in Memphis with that amazing shot directly following Milos' title win in San Jose at the SAP Open. Click here to see the report from this blog from that match, including that shot embedded in a youtube video. If you remember, Milos was glad to be part of the match whose video of the final shot would get the "Most Hits on Youtube" A rematch would be excellent.
The 4th and final possible opponent for Milos' 3rd round would be Robin Hasse (NED). Excluding his Davis Cup win versus Mexico in March 2011 with Vasek Pospisil as his partner (though he lost last week with Pospisil in the first round of doubles in Chennai), the only partner Milos was able to win with last year was Robin Hasse in Halle (he suffered first round defeats with Feliciano Lopez, Nico Almagro (twice), and Pablo Andujar). He went all the way to the finals with Robin Hasse in Halle, and lost a very close match to the Indo-Pakistani duo of Rohan Bopanna / Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, 6-7(8), 6-3, 9-11.
Updated: Milos' Draw - 4th Round
(revised 10pm thanks to Mark)
As you'll read below, Djokovic considers Raonic to be one of the most dangerous players in the draw outside of the top 4. He was probably not happy then to learn that Milos is in his eighth of the draw. The most likely opponent for Milos in the 4th round will be Novak, with 29th-seeded Radek Stepanek a distant second most likely. Milos did not meet Novak in ATP play last year, but in 2010 he did. In first-round doubles play with Vasek Pospisil at the Rogers Cup in Toronto in 2010 the duo famously (at least for Canadian fans) took out the team of Djokovic/Nadal.
Here are some HD highlights of that match:
The full main men's draw is available for download here from AustralianOpen.com.
Honourable Mentions
During the draw today on AustralianOpen.com, Milos was a hot topic of converation. When Novak Djokovic was asked which players, outside the top four, were the most dangerous, he said Tsonga, Tomic (for the Aussie crowd), and Raonic. He went on to say very nice things about Milos, before John McEnroe got up and said a few nice things after mispronouncing his name on purpose in his usual cheeky style - as if he hadn't heard of him or been paying attention to the last year in ATP tennis... He mentioned that he didn't think Raonic could last or play as well during a 5-setter in a Grand Slam, but I have to disagree after seeing him play over 3 hours with Tipsarevic, not giving up a service game for the entire tournament and only allowing a couple of break-points in the final near the end of the match.
Update from an official tournament article posted later at AustralianOpen.com:
“From the seeds, (Jo-Wilfried) Tsonga, and then I’ll go with (Milos) Raonic and (Bernard) Tomic – two youngsters who are really, I think, on a roll these days,” Djokovic said.
Of these, home hope Tomic has arguably the toughest opening task, taking on 2009 semifinalist, 22nd-seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco.
In-form sixth seed Tsonga has a tricky start against Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin and would likely pose a major hurdle for Murray in the quarters.
Giant Canadian Raonic is drawn to meet Roddick or Australian veteran Lleyton Hewitt in the third round before a potential fourth-round tussle with Djokovic. Wildcard Hewitt starts against German lefty Cedrik-Marcel Stebe.
“He (Raonic) is one of the guys who has the chance to be a grand slam winner. He’s finally back to where he was six months ago,” McEnroe said of the 23rd seed’s chance.
--source: link http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/news/articles/2012-01-13/201201131326425750531.html
Canadian Qualifiers Update
Play is still suspended in the Pospisil match, at an even 5-5 in the first set. Erik Chvojka did eventually lose that 3rd set (3-6, 6-3, 6-2), so Canadian Qualifiers are 3 for 4 in the first round. Polansky and Duclos are scheduled to contest their 2nd qualifying round matches today as well.
Update 10pm: Pospisil was apparently frustrated after a double-fault in the 1st set tiebreak, this threw him off enough to lose the tiebreak 7-9 and give up an early break in the 2nd set. He did break back but has been broken again and is serving now while down 5-3 in the 2nd set facing the end of the match on Ball's serve if he's able to hold.
Update 10:15pm EST: Vasek Pospisil has been eliminated in the 2nd round of qualifying at the Australian Open, as Carsten Ball put away the final game at love. Polansky and Duclos are yet to come, but we'll have to check those scores in the morning...
Update 13 Jan: Peter Polansky won his 2nd round qualie match versus Augustin Gensse (FRA) in straight sets 6-3, 6-2, while Andr Ghem (BRA) defeated Pierre-Ludovic Duclos in 3 setter 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-4. Danai Udomchoke (THA) will be Peter's final round opponent in today's qualifying action - up second on Court 15 in the session that starts at 12:30PM local which means he'll probably be playing around 10PM Eastern (EST) today.
Update 14 Jan: Peter Polansky was eliminated from the qualifying as well in straight sets - leaving Milos as the sole Canadian on the Men's singles side. Looking forward to watching our automatic entries on the women's side as well as Milos and Nestor... Go, Canada, Go! (link)
--wacb
Updated: Milos Raonic pulls out of AAMI Classic as Canadian qualifiers perform in Melbourne
Milos Raonic pulled out of the AAMI classic after his first-round loss to Mardy Fish, citing an upset stomach. Hopefully it's nothing serious... Here is the CBC's report on the match:
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/tennis/story/2012/01/11/sp-tennis-melbourne-raonic.html
Update: Canadian qualifiers on the men's side are doing well leading up to the 2012 Australian Open. In the first round, Vasek Pospisil, Pierre-Ludovic Duclos, won three-setters at 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-2 and 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 respectively. Peter Polansky won his first round match 6-3, 6-2. Erik Chvojka was in the middle of the third set in his match when play was cancelled yesterday, and he currently trails at 6-3, 3-6, 1-5 with his match set to finish up in the morning (late tonight, 11 Jan, if you're following from North America).
As for the women, we have nobody in the qualifying rounds, but it looks like Stephanie Dubois, Rebecca Marino, and Aleksandra Wozniak are direct entries on the players list.
Daniel Nestor has entered the doubles competition as a direct entry as well. Last year, he made it to the semi-finals here and won the next Grand Slam of the year at Roland Garros.
--wacb
Fish def. Raonic 6-1, 6-2 – Tsonga up next for Milos…
Mardy Fish has just defeated Milos Raonic in the first round of the AAMI Classic in Kooyong, Australia. The final score was 6-1, 6-2. I dozed off during the Tsonga match after a long day (had a 6AM flight this morning from Newfoundland) to wake up to Fish's victory speech, where he praised Raonic and said he was going to "make a lot of money out here".
We get a preview of a potential Davis Cup match-up in February in Vancouver as Tsonga will be Raonic's next opponent in the consolidation round. Jo-Wilfred Tsonga also lost today, defeated by Jurgen Melzer 6-4, 6-3. The wind and conditions on court did not suit Tsonga well. As I was able to watch most of his match, it was evident his high ball toss was affected, as well as his ability to hit the lines precisely. He seemed very frustrated with the up-to-70km/h winds. I imagine Milos suffered similarly with his style of play.
As Roddick starts his serve in the first game of his match versus Monfils with ace as I write, I'm wondering if he can keep that up against the wind... The winner of that match will face Tomic in the semi-final, while the loser will face Berdych in the consolidation round. It seems each of the exhibition matches so far today went opposite to my expectations...
--wacb
AAMI Classic Preview – 6th-seeded Raonic to face Mardy Fish
Milos will be playing in the AAMI Classic this year for the first time. He is seeded 6th ahead of Bernard Tomic and Jurgen Melzer in the field of 8 invited players.
His first round will see him play Mardy Fish for the chance to move on to a semi-final match-up with the winner of Tsonga/Melzer. If he should lose, he will play in the consolidation round against the loser of said match. Of course, Raonic and Fish have some history from last year, where Milos won their two meetings (first in Memphis and then a few weeks later at Indian Wells). Mardy Fish was ranked 17 and 15 respectively during those tournaments, but both players have improved since then as Mardy Fish is now ranked #8 (1 below his career-high #7 ranking achieved last year) and Milos Raonic is ranked at his career high of #25. If Raonic is able to defeat Fish again in Melbourne today, this will be highest ranked player he'll have defeated (though it's not an ATP tournament). Mardy Fish did not play last week in the ATP season opening tournaments.
This warm-up tournament in Kooyong (just outside of Melbourne) is an invitational tournament. Here are the rules as explained at wikipedia.org:
The AAMI Classic draw includes eight invited Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) players, seeded according to the ATP rankings of the week preceding the tournament. Four first round matches are played, after which the four winners advance to the semifinals, while the four losers are relegated to a play-off draw. The two semifinals of the main draw and of the play-off draw are then played, setting four new matches : the main draw final, to decide of the champion and of the runner-up, the main draw consolation match, to decide of the third and fourth places, the play-off draw final, to decide of the fifth and sixth places, and the play-off draw consolation match, to decide of the seventh and eighth places.
The tournament takes place over four days, with the four first round matches taking place on the first day, the two first round matches of the play-off draw, and one semifinal of the main draw taking place on the second day, the final and the consolation match of the play-off draw, and the second semifinal of the main draw taking place on the third day, and the final and the consolation match of the main draw taking place on the fourth and last day.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AAMI_Classic#Competition_format
Milos is the third match of the day today, preceded by Tsonga/Melzer, then Tomic/Berdych, and followed by the final match of the day between Monfils and Roddick. All these first-round matches play through in one session, starting at 11AM local time, which is about 1.5 hours ago (7PM Eastern) but play has been suspended due to rain. A quick check of the weather forecast reveals they should expect up to 5mm of rain, possible hail, and wind averaging up to 50 km/h and then settling down to 30 km/h or so toward the evening. It doesn't look like it will be a comfortable day as the video shows things blowing around the court and drizzle.
It looks like play is about to start as Tsonga and Melzer are warming up, so if there's no further interruption in play I figure Milos will take to the court around 11PM Eastern Time or shortly after that. I am looking forward to the Fish/Raonic match given their match record from 2011...
--wacb
Raonic to be seeded No.23 at the Australian Open
Fresh off the title win at the Aircel Chennai Open, we have just learned that Milos Raonic will be the No.23 seed at the 2012 Australian Open. Here is a complete list of the men's seeds. Raonic moved up six places from 31 to 25 when the ATP Rankings were updated this week. He also joked that he is currently tied with Murray and Tsonga for first place in the ATP points race. I wonder how long he will able to keep pace with them and the other top players looking to finish their season in London later this year?
-multi
Update: The nice thing about this is he certainly won't have to face anyone ranked/seeded higher than Tipsarevic until the Round of 16 at the earliest. Last year of course he faced M. Youzhny in the round of 32, who was ranked #10 at the time, and eventually lost to 7th-ranked David Ferrer. Based on his lack of seeding at the time (he had to win a three-setter in the final round of qualifying last year) he could very well have faced such highly ranked players in the earlier rounds.
On that note: As I was confirming the info for this update (and how to spell "Youzhny") at atpworldtour.com, just a bit below on the screen was a reminder of Milos' improvement over the past year that caught my eye. I thought I should share it with you:
Aussie Open and Chennai - Milos Raonic - 2011
Milos failed to even qualify last year for the tournament that he won this year. Of course, at the time Milos had not started his "meteoric" rise and had not started to post the results that would earn him "Newcomer of the Year", so those results weren't anything to write about... He had to qualify for the ATP 250 tournament he played after the Australian Open last year in South Africa, but he obviously has not had to bother qualifying since - now he's the 23rd seed at the Australian Open.
--wacb
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