Recap of the fiercest battles of 2012: Murray vs. Raonic – Open Sabadell Atlantico
Reigning world number 13, Milos Raonic, gave a straight-sets shocking defeat to the British number one, Andy Murray, in the quarter-final round of the Open Sabadell Atlantico on the clay courts of Barcelona. The Canadian consolidated
his win, 6-4, 7-6(3), and made it to his second ATP World Tour semi-finals.
In a post match interview Raonic said, “It's very, very difficult and a big plus in confidence for me. Clay's not his best surface, but he consistently does well on it. Last year he reached the semi-finals at the French Open, Monte-Carlo
and Rome, so he can play really well on it. For me, it was a big win, regardless of the surface. I was playing really well up till that point. He played really well the next game at 5-5. I didn't really have any opportunities and I was fortunate that I served
well again in the next game then played a good tie-break."
The lower ranked Canadian professional started the game with his proactive performance but dropped the initial four points. He began to take the lead in the latter half of the set by cashing on his challenger’s serve in the seventh
game. He dominated the score line the entire time in the second set and in the ninth game, the set ended in a tiebreaker.
The world number three, Murray, registered 63 percent initial serve precision with just three aces. He converted 33 of 45 first and 13 of 26 second serve points. On the other hand, Raonic, secured 65 percent first serve precision
with 14 aces and 38 of 45 points.
The 6ft 5in, Raonic, faced the Spanish number two, David Ferrer in the semi-final round. Previously, the higher ranked professional outmuscled his compatriot, Feliciano Lopez in approximately two hours and 45 minutes, nudging up
a 6-7(4), 7-6(7), 6-3 score.
Murray started his clay court campaign at an average pace. He made until the quarter-finals of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters but the final round suffered from an unexpected thrashing at the hands of Tomas Berdych.
The 21-year-old Canadian tennis ace has shown a drastic improvement in the previous two years. If he continues to progress with the same pace in the upcoming tournaments, he has good chance to become a part of the elite Top-10.
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