Rafael Nadal survives resistance from Milos Raonic to move into last eight – Rakuten Open 2011
World No. 2 Rafael Nadal of Spain survived severe resistance from 20-year-old Milos Raonic of Canada to confirm the quarterfinal spot at the Rakuten Japan Open on 6th October. The exciting encounter was played in Tokyo
with a decent turnout to watch the World No. 30 take on the former World No. 1. Lengthy rallies were the gist of this match as neither of the two players was ready to bow down. After a fierce battle of an hour and thirty minutes Nadal marched into the quarterfinals
with a 7-5, 6-3 win.
The score line doesn’t do justice to the enthralling battle that ensued on the courts of Tokyo with Raonic doing all in his might to give the Spaniard a tough time. Playing each other a year later at the exact same spot, these
two players had faced each other last year in the round of sixteen with Nadal as the dominant player defeating Raonic 6-4, 6-4. Raonic had his moments in the game and looked threatening with his speedy serves but Nadal’s experience gave the Spaniard an edge
over the young Canadian. Raonic had a chance to level the head-to-head with Nadal but he lucked out.
Raonic was the dominant speedster with eight aces compared to just two from Nadal but he lacked quality in his back-hand returns and couldn’t rise to the level of his opponent. Raonic started off in great style winning the first
game but then Nadal bounced back to level it up. The sea-saw score line continued for the first ten games of the set. Nadal managed to steal the last two sets with his guile and fierce forehand shots to take the first set 7-5.
The length of the first set tired Raonic in the second set. He was not moving across the pitch at the same pace as he was in the first set and Nadal’s strength and stamina is famous around the world. Nadal had an exciting 80% serve
point win percentage and had an overall 57% points winning ratio. Raonic is still young and with the passage of time he will groom into a classic all-round tennis talent. He needs to work on his backhands and needs to capitalize on his unique strength of extremely
fast serves.
Nadal, on the other hand, will now play Dmitry Tursunov in the quarterfinal later in the event.
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