Milos Raonic’s record against top 10 ranked players – Tennis Special
Canada’s Milos Raonic has improved a lot in the last two years, making his place among the top players on the ATP World Tour.
Raonic first came to the limelight at the beginning of the 2011 ATP season, when he started with a ranking of 156th in the world. The Canadian came through the qualifying draw of the 2011 Australian Open and stunned
some of the top players on the Tour to reach the last 16. Raonic lost to Spain’s David Ferrer in the fourth round but he had already made his mark on the map of tennis world.
Since then, Raonic has been on a constant rise, as he attained his highest world ranking of 21 in May this year. However, the Canadian has failed to give a consistent performance against top 10 players on the ATP World Tour. The
21-year-old has won six of the 13 matches he has played against top 10 ranked rivals so far in his career, which is not a bad record but he has the potential to do better than this.
Although, shortly after losing to Ferrer at the Australian Open, Raonic notched up his first top 10 win by defeating the then world number nine, Fernando Verdasco of Spain, in straight sets 7-6(6), 7-6(5) in the final of SAP Open,
winning first title of his career.
The Canadian continued his amazing run and reached the final of Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in the following week but this time he lost to the eighth ranked player at that time, Andy Roddick, in three sets 6-7(7), 7-6(11),
5-7.
Raonic lost four more straight matches against top 10 players in 2011. The Canadian was beaten by Ferrer twice, Rafael Nadal and Gael Monfils.
With a ranking of 31, Raonic made an impressive start in this season. Playing his first tournament of the year, he stunned the then world number nine, Janko Tipsarevic, in three sets 6-7(4), 7-6(4), 7-6(4).
Playing his first match against one of the best tennis players of all time, Roger Federer, Raonic won the first set but went on to lose 7-6(4), 2-6, 4-6 in the third round of BNP Paribas Open. The Canadian claimed the biggest victory
of his career by beating fourth ranked player, Andy Murray, in straight sets 6-4, 7-6(3) in the quarter-finals of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell.
Raonic faced Federer two more times after that and those matches went to the decider but the Canadian failed to breakthrough. In the longest match of Olympics history, the Canadian lost to sixth ranked, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, in three
sets 3-6, 6-3, 23-25 in the second round of the London Games.
Talking to the reporters after the match, Raonic said, “I’ve sort of been knocking on the door. Hopefully next time around, I can sort of kick it down and make the most of it. I think, if I can get through one of these, I think
it just opens up a lot more doors.”
He added, “Hopefully next time around, I can sort of kick it down and make the most of it. I think, if I can get through one of these, I think it just opens up a lot more doors. I think the difference is just going to come down
to how I deal with the big points. I think going into next time, I’ll be better equipped. The question is: how much?”
From his recent performances, one can get an idea that Raonic is close to achieving the ability to consistently beat top 10 players on the ATP World Tour.
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