2011 SAP Open: Milos Raonic sails into the quarterfinals
The 2011 SAP Open wildcard entry, Milos Raonic has proved his mettle on the courts once again by securing a place in the tournament’s quarterfinals. The 20-year-old Canadian tennis star won straight sets against American James Blake to advance in the ATP
Tour event. The final score was 6-2, 7-6.
The young gun has been gaining a lot of attention in the international circuit and finished off Blake, the former world number 4, in a remarkable 1 hour and 10 minutes. This feat seems even more significant when we take into account the fact that this marks
the first time that the player has featured in the SAP Open.
Raonic came into the second round ranked as 84th in the world, a career high for him, and will most certainly be climbing further up the rankings when the rankings are revised. On the other hand Blake, who has won a whooping 10 ATP tournament
titles, has fallen to the 170th spot.
The hard-serving Canadian tennis star pulled off 13 aces against Blake and won 81 percent of his service points during the match. This takes his aces count to 33 over the two matches he has played at the Open so far.
A wildcard entry here, this was Blake’s first appearance at the event since 2009 and he had been looking to make a comeback through the event, and possibly set his career back on track. However, fate had other plans. Talking to reporters after the match,
Blake said that Raonic had been at an advantage because of his serve and that was where the basic difference lay, especially when it came to the big points.
Milos Raonic has been enjoying a lot of success at the SAP Open and had made waves here earlier when he took on, and defeated, another top ranked player. Raonic went head-to-head with the fourth seeded Xavier Malisse and flushed him out with a straight sets
victory.
The youngster will now be put to the test against Richard Berankis, who currently sits at the 74th spot on the rankings. Berankis advanced into the quarterfinals after a 6-4, 5-7, 7-5 victory over Donald Young. This will mark the second time that
Raonic appears in an ATP quarter-final.
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