Despite reaching the Semi-Finals at the BNP Paribas Open, Milos Raonic has admitted that consistency is needed in order to get back to his best tennis.
The Canadian reached his first Semi-Final for ten months after a 7-5 2-6 6-3 victory over 18th seed Sam Querrey, in which Raonic served down 17 aces during the contest. However the 32nd seed has admitted that more consistency is needed if he wants to get back to playing his best tennis, “I have to be disciplined with myself to put a good level consistently throughout, from start to end,” said the Canadian. “I was a little bit up and down too much, and if I don’t get lucky like I did at the end of that first set, it’s a very different storyline. So it’s important, I’m happy about it, but still got a long ways to go, a lot of things to keep working on and doing better.”
The former Wimbledon finalist also spoke about how playing fellow Canadian, Felix Auger-Aliassime in his first match helped him settle into the tournament, “Yeah, the pressure of it, it sort of was on the end of things. I think that also, at the end of that match, there was some kind of sense of relief, as well, to get through that, especially with not just everybody else but myself, questioning myself how things were going to come along. And then, you know, second match also I was a little bit borderline there, and I put it together today, as well. So there has been a lot of moments of relief that have occurred throughout this week so far.”
Raonic will be very relieved to make the Semi-Finals in the Californian desert as he has really struggled since his comeback from injury. As every match passes by his serve gets better and the way he controlled the match against Querrey was very much like the Raonic of old. The Canadian will now face a massive test in the last four as he takes on Juan Martin Del Potro, who is on a ten match winning streak.
