Jarkko Nieminen surprises Milos Raonic in the quarter-finals – Thailand Open 2012
Seeded seventh in the draw, Jarkko Nieminen of Finland upset the third seed, Canada’s Milos Raonic, in straight sets 6-3, 7-6(3) to reach the semi-finals of the Thailand Open. This ATP World Tour 25- hard court event is being held
in Thailand’s capital, Bangkok.
Raonic lost the battle after fighting for one hour and 33 minutes, failing in his bid to capture third title of this season.
Nieminen did not allow his Canadian opponent to settle down in the contest, as he captured opening three games to race to a 3-0 lead. Raonic could hardly hold his own serves and never came close to breaking back, losing the opener
3-6.
The Finn participant did well on the first serves, keeping the percentage at 85 and converting 19 of the 23 of them into points. The left-hander won half of the points on second deliveries and second returns. The Masku, Finland
resident did not face any break point and converted one of the two he received in the first set.
Nieminen and Raonic served brilliantly throughout the second set, holding their entire serves to even out the proceedings at 6-6 and force a tie-breaker. The Finn contender grabbed opening three points to take a 3-0 lead and sustained
it till the end to win 7-6(3).
The 31-year-old smacked one ace and the same number of double fault in the second set. The 6ft 1in tall kept his first serve percentage at 73, bagging 23 of the 29 first and eight of the 11 second delivery points. The Finn national
was unable to capitalise on any of the three break opportunities he created did not allow Raonic to create even a single one.
Raonic accepted that Nieminen was better than him in all departments of the game. He said after the match, “He played pretty much better than I did. I was not doing things right and he was executing his game plan. He made me hesitate
a lot and managed a lot of good shots. Hopefully next week in Tokyo and can make some progress and play better and better each day.”
Nieminen will lock horns with the second seed, Richard Gasquet, in the semi-finals.
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