TENNIS RG14 – Milos Raonic has been steadily making a name for himself on the ATP tour. He is now firmly in the top 10, ranked 8 in the world. However, if a player wishes to make a big splash on the tour, he needs to do well at the majors. Cordell Hackshaw
Interviews, Results, OOP, Draws from the 2014 Roland Garros
Milos Raonic has been steadily making a name for himself on the ATP tour. He is now firmly in the top 10, ranked 8 in the world. However, if a player wishes to make a big splash on the tour, he needs to do well at the majors especially in this current era with so many huge stars like Nadal, Djokovic, Federer, Wawrinka, Ferrer and Murray are all still active in the sport. The Canadian 23-year-old took on Australian teenager and wild card entrant Nick Kyrgios and showed that though they might be close in age, their games are worlds apart. Raonic won in straight sets 6-3 7-6(1) 6-3.
Raonic raced out to an early lead at 4-1 in the 1st set. Raonic first serve proved to the lethal weapon in this match up, winning 94% of the points and after 36 minutes, Raonic took the 1st set 6-3. Kyrgios has many looks at break point but was only able to convert on this 6th one in the end set when he led 4-2. However, he was unable to consolidate the break and things were back on serve. In the tie-breaker, Raonic again pulled out his big guns, the forehand and serve and took the 2nd set 7-6, conceding only one point in the breaker.
With a 2-0 set advantage, Raonic began to take more risk on his return game and earned an early break in the 3rd set 4-2. Kyrgios broke back for 3-4 but he unable to go any further in the match as Raonic broke again and closed out the match 6-3 7-6 6-3. Raonic and coach, former tour player Ivan Ljubicic should be mostly proud of this early effort. Raonic had 27 aces for the match and when he got the 1st serve in (59% for the match) he won 90% of those points. Raonic stated in his press conference “I felt very good. I was able to do the things I wanted to do.” Hopefully, his 2nd serve improves over the course of the tournament because he only won 44% of those points. Kyrgios recognized that he had his chances in the match but failed to capitalize; “Yeah, I had numerous chances where I could have taken them and taken that second set. Who knows? Would have been much closer than the scoreline says.” However, Raonic complemented his opponent stated that there is definitely potential there to be a top player in the future.
