Milos Raonic downs Olivier Rochus to reach semis – Regions Morgan Keegan Championships 2012
Fourth seeded Milos Raonic eased past the Belgian ace, Olivier Rochus, in straight sets at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships 2012 on Friday. He manipulated a 6-3, 7-6(3) victory over the 31-year-old to advance into the final four at this hard court
event taking place in Memphis, Tennessee, United States.
The 2011 finalist, Raonic stayed on track to claim his third year-to-date title after overpowering the Belgian in their first meeting. After ruling in the one hour and 23-minutes marathon, the Canadian not only improved to a 14-1 win-loss record this season
but also booked a place in the semi-finals at this ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 500 series event.
The booming Canadian entered the Racquet Club of Memphis with poise. He smashed 13 aces and plucked entire serves without facing any barrier. Raonic got the breakthrough in the sixth game and clinched the set with a 6-3 score line.
Ranked 35th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings, Raonic kept momentum rolling into the following set and earned the desiderated break in the fifth game to go 3-2 up. Regardless of losing his serve in the tenth game, the Canadian
held his composure and dragged the set to a tie-breaker. He outclassed the Belgian veteran in it and bagged the set with a 7-6 (3) win.
Overall, the high flying youngster smacked 26 ferocious aces and clobbered a better first serve share of 67 percent as compared to Rochus’ 57 percent. He also marvellously clicked 32 out of 43 points on it and converted two out of three break chances to
his advantage.
The 21-year-old is in awesome run of form this season. He grabbed a title at the Aircel Chennai Open in the first week of January and defended his title at the SAP Open in San Jose last week. Raonic carried his winning ways in this tournament and reached
the semis without losing a set. He dumped Ernests Gulbis and Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky before battling the Belgian.
"I feel like I'm just getting better this week," said the Canadian after defeating Stakhovsky. "I felt last week I played really good tennis and I'm happy that this week I'm backing it up."
Next up for the seed is the winner of the match between the Polish star, Lukasz Kubot, and the German challenger, Benjamin Becker. Raonic should play his original game in order to grab his fourth ATP career title.
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