Milos Raonic overpowers Kevin Anderson in the quarterfinal – SAP Open 2012
Defending champion, Milos Raonic, reached the last four, beating the sixth seed Kevin Anderson in straight sets 7-5, 7-6(3) in the quarterfinal at the SAP Open, in San Jose, on Friday. Seeded third at this event, the Canadian,
managed to beat his South African opponent in an hour and 42 minutes.
As it was expected from these two big serving players, Raonic and Anderson did not give each other many chances to break. The only one of the match came in the eleventh game of the first set in favour of Raonic. The Canadian made
full use of it and served out the set at 6-5.
Raonic bombarded eight aces and 65 percent of the first deliveries right on target. The 21-year-old kept his first serve conversion rate at 85 and second at 64. The Canadian did not allow Anderson to have any break opportunity.
The second set went with both contestants holding their serves throughout and levelling the score at 6-6 to force a tie-break round. Raonic swallowed first four points and maintained his lead till the end, sealing it 7-3.
The Canadian matched his mighty serve performance of eight aces but Anderson’s dropped from nine to five. It looked like Raonic could not lose any point on his first deliveries as he claimed 22 of the 24 of them. The 6ft 5in tall
was unable to capitalise on two break chances in the fifth game but some perfect shot making in the tie-break helped his cause in the end.
Anderson had already sensed before the match that both players will get only a handful of chances to break. The South African had said, “It’ll come down to just a few opportunities. Service game is going to be a big focus, so hopefully
I’ll be able to serve well and capitalise on a few opportunities.”
This is the same place where it all started for Raonic last year. The Canadian came from nowhere and defeated Fernando Verdasco, ranked 9th in the world at that time, in straight sets 7-6(6), 7-6(5) in the final to win
his maiden championship title.
Raonic will meet either Ryan Harrison of USA or qualifier, Dimitar Kutrovsky of Bulgaria, in the semi-finals.
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