TENNIS – Monte-Carlo 2014. Stanislas Wawrinka edged Milos Raonic in a tight first set before rolling to a good 7-6 (5) 6-2 win worth a place in the semi-finals of ATP Master 1000 of Monte Carlo. Giulio Gasparin
The Australian Open champion was forced to a first-set tiebreak by the heavy serve of the Canadian and he found himself trailing 3-0 and then 5-3 before finding his best game and close 7-5.
In the second set, with the boost of confidence given by the first set, the Swiss found his trademark shots and after breaking Raonic’s serve on the very first break point of the match, he sailed to a comfortable win.
The world number 10, however, showed great improvements on the surface and it was clear the new prompts given by the coaching of Riccardo Piatti and Ivan Ljubicic are starting to kick in.
Raonic adopted new tactics, trying to avoid baseline rallies by charging the net and this combination of strong serves and net rushes seemed to work, as the Canadian faced no break points in the first set.
Wawrinka remained the best clay courter of the two and his aptness to the surface started to make an impact whenever the rallies began to grow longer.
Nonetheless, the Swiss number one exploited his big and varying serve to keep the pressure off, as much as giving no break points to his opponent throughout the match.
Having had the advantage to serve first, the world number three led the first set from the very beginning, but both times Raonic had to serve to stay in the set, the Canadian found his best serve to give no chances to his opponent.
Wawrinka started the tiebreak in the worst possible way as he was let down by his ground-strokes: first his favourite backhand down the line finished long and after a good serve from the Canadian, it was his forehand to go wild.
Down for 3-0, the Swiss did not let this bring him down and with two good serves and then a stunning backhand passing shot on the run, he got the mini-break back.
An unlucky netcord stopped Wawrinka’s forehand, giving another chance to Raonic, but on 4-5 up, the serve of the Canadian went missing.
The same net that stopped the Swiss’s forehand transformed a return in a winner to even the score, then Raonic sank an easy forehand on the bottom of the net, giving Wawrinka the chance to serve for the set.
The world number three did not let this go unused and with a massive serve he closed the tiebreak.
Raonic started the second set with three big serves to set a 40-0 lead, but the Wawrinka stepped in and by trying to be aggressive from the return, he scored four straight winners to get to the first break point of the match.
Raonic missed an easy forehand again and handed the first break.
Wawrinka started to trust more his shots and got another easy hold featuring one more stunning backhand down the line.
Raonic stopped the leak with two consecutive holds, but there was little he could do in the service games of the Swiss.
In the seventh game of the second set, Wawrinka pushed on the throttle once more and found another break to go serving for the set.
With another big service game, the third seed closed the match with ease, showing a renewed confidence after the worrying weeks on the American hard courts.
Wawrinka will now face the winner of Rafael Nadal against David Ferrer, with Nadal as the big favourite. But both the Spaniards will have to beware, because the Swiss has yet to face a single break point in the tournament and his game seems to be back to the Australian levels.
