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Raonic Edges Hewitt at Citi Open
17 Comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Articles, Scoop
Milos Raonic was pinpoint accurate especially with his serve, taking down Lleyton Hewitt 76 76.
Raonic blasted eight aces in the first two games, and eventually eighteen for the first set. After the match Raonic asked ATP stat maven Greg Sharko if it’s a one-set ace record.
With less artillery but more savvy, Hewitt scrapped and hung in there and forced two tiebreaks but he faltered early in both, coughing up vital mini breaks with two makeable forehand misses in the second set tiebreak. The first one evoked a shriek “Noooooooo,” from the still super feisty Aussie.
After the match I asked Raonic what did he do differently for this match as the last time he played Hewitt two years ago he lost in four sets at the Aussie Open. Raonic responded that it wasn’t anything tactics-wise but mainly a different competitive mindset for the certain key points. The kid is an intellectual, as his coach Ivan Ljubicic. It seems just a matter of time that Raonic, with Ljubicic in his corner, becomes the first player born in the 90s to win a major singles title.
Hewitt has nothing to be ashamed of with this loss, with a little more help he could have pulled off the upset win vs. the #2 seed. Hewitt had four break points in the first set but he couldn’t capitalize. Raonic came up big with his serve and he also seemed to target a specific go-to pattern of setting up his inside out forehand to stretch Hewitt out wide to his backhand. Hewitt could not seem to hurt Raonic once this pattern was dialed in.
An interesting question was mentioned at the post match press conference about Raonic hitting with Serena in Toronto last week. According to the blogger who knew about it, Serena may be romantically pursuing the Canadian Rocket, as Serena likes them “tall dark and handsome. And young.”
In other action: Victor Estrella ran out of magic and was dominated by the emerging Colombian Santiago Giraldo who can really belt the ball and is as consistent as a wall.
Richard Gasquet feasted on Smyczek like he did Sela. Sergi Bruguera is here this week with RG.
Christina McHale was trounced by the crafty Vania King who took a long bathroom break early in the second set. It was so long McHale was practicing her serves for about ten minutes. I saw King emerge from the locker room door and she grimaced as she stepped with her groin newly wrapped. It looked like she was badly injured and her mobility would be severely compromised. So what does she do? She continues the domination and crushed McHale. Bluffing and playing possum are still a part of tennis.
Petr Korda is still here with Radek Stepanek practicing. Korda also has his son Sebastian here and the two are hitting together daily. Korda’s son, a righty, hits a very nice ball, and could be a future star.
Doug Adler was kind enough to talk about my Facing Hewitt book on the Pop radio here during the Hewitt-Raonic match, he also read some quotes from the book. Thanks Doug.
CITI OPEN – WASHINGTON DC, USA
USD 1,654,295.00 (ATP)
USD 250,000.00 (WTA)
28 JULY – 3 AUGUST 2014
RESULTS – JULY 31, 2014
Men’s
Singles – Third Round
[13] V Pospisil (CAN) d [1] [WC] T Berdych (CZE) 62 64
[2] M Raonic (CAN) d [14] L Hewitt (AUS) 76(1) 76(3)
[4] K Nishikori (JPN) d L Lacko (SVK) 62 26 63
[6] R Gasquet (FRA) d T Smyczek (USA) 63 62
[7] K Anderson (RSA) d M Jaziri (TUN) 63 64
S Johnson (USA) d [9] I Karlovic (CRO) 36 76(4) 76(7)
[10] S Giraldo (COL) d V Estrella Burgos (DOM) 62 60
D Young (USA) d [15] D Istomin (UZB) 63 36 63
Men’s
Doubles – Quarterfinals
J Rojer (NED) / H Tecau (ROU) d [2] A Peya (AUT) / B Soares (BRA) 76(3) 62
[Q] J Erlich (ISR) / R Ram (USA) d [4] I Dodig (CRO) / M Melo (BRA) 62 62
Women’s
Singles – Second Round
[2] E Makarova (RUS) d L Davis (USA) 62 64
[5] A Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) d [Q] H Kuwata (JPN) 63 63
[6] S Kuznetsova (RUS) d K Flipkens (BEL) 64 75
V King (USA) d C Mchale (USA) 61 63
Women’s
Doubles – Quarterfinals
H Kuwata (JPN) / K Nara (JPN) d [3] V King (USA) / T Townsend (USA) walkover
L Dekmeijere (LAT) / N Melichar (USA) d [4] A Rodionova (AUS) / O Rogowska (AUS) 76(2) 16 14-12
ORDER OF PLAY – FRIDAY, AUGUST 01, 2014
STADIUM COURT start 1:00 pm
ATP – [7] K Anderson (RSA) vs D Young (USA)
4:00 pm
ATP – S Johnson (USA) vs [2] M Raonic (CAN)
7:00 pm
ATP – [4] K Nishikori (JPN) vs [6] R Gasquet (FRA)
Not Before 9:15 pm
ATP – [13] V Pospisil (CAN) vs [10] S Giraldo (COL)
GRANDSTAND 1 start 1:00 pm
WTA – M Erakovic (NZL) vs B Jovanovski (SRB)
WTA – [6] S Kuznetsova (RUS) vs V King (USA)
WTA – [5] A Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) vs [2] E Makarova (RUS)
Not Before 7:00 pm
ATP – [1] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) vs [WC] S Johnson (USA) / S Querrey (USA)
GRANDSTAND 2 start 1:00 pm
WTA – K Mladenovic (FRA) vs K Nara (JPN)
WTA – L Dekmeijere (LAT) / N Melichar (USA) vs [2] S Aoyama (JPN) / G Dabrowski (CAN)
WTA-After Appropriate Rest – J Rae (GBR) / A Smith (GBR) vs H Kuwata (JPN) / K Nara (JPN)
Not Before 7:00 pm
ATP – J Cabal (COL) / D Marrero (ESP) vs S Groth (AUS) / L Paes (IND)
Serena-Raonic romance brewing?
Dan Markowitz · August 1, 2014 at 1:09 pm
Serena’s last (current?) boyfriend, her French coach, is dark, but he ain’t young, he’s like 10 years older than Serena. What makes Raonic an intellectual? Has he read Ulysses? I know his father is a PHD College professor, but Raonic hasn’t even gone to college. It shows you how good Gasquet is that he has no problem with these lower-level pros.
Mitch · August 1, 2014 at 2:08 pm
I’ve been away for a bit, but just noticed that David Goffin has been on a super sneaky but impressive run: since losing to Murray at the first round of Wimbledon, he’s won 19 straight matching (3 challengers and now into the final of Kitzbuhel, dropped only 1 set, and played only 2 tiebreaks. Most of the opposition has been fairly weak, but wow.
jg · August 1, 2014 at 3:42 pm
scoop: DY beat Anderson, were you at the match? You think DY can win the tournament?
Dan Markowitz · August 1, 2014 at 4:13 pm
I have to say mea culpa big time. DY beat Kevin Anderson?! Are you crazy? Am I crazy? I would never in a million years think DY would beat Anderson on a hard court, but DY comes up big again in DC.
Somehow, Mitch, Goffin winning 3 challengers, while somewhat impressive, is not getting me excited. You realize he won these Challengers in places likd Finland and his best wins are against Nieminem and Rola.
Andrew Miller · August 1, 2014 at 5:22 pm
With Sock, Johnson playing big and somewhat deeper into tournaments and then DY losing his #3 spot in U.S. tennis, gotta believe DY saw this and said man, I got to do something. Not to compare the u.s. “champions” era to today but we know one thing about u.s. tennis players: they care about how well they do vs. their peers’ records, their u.s. peers. Ultimately that’s what will put the pressure on Harrison and Kudla to push themselves.
It’s happenned before – the Roddick, Blake, Fish Ginepri group all coming up around the same time. Misery loves company. Apparently so too success.
Gotta believe though that Steve Johnson started this – started challenging Harrison for top dog in the up and coming group. That woke up the other guys – Sock, Klahn etc – and DY saw this said hey, I am going to see if I can get it on this too.
Jack · August 1, 2014 at 6:53 pm
Donald Young into the semis ?
Wow.
Dan markowitz · August 1, 2014 at 6:55 pm
I think it was Sock who first challenged Harry. But Stteve Jo and Sock do not have big upsides in my mind. Cahill mentioned today that both have trouble with kick serves hit to their backhands. They don’t use their left hands well.
It’s surprising DY who was top dog as a junior and then fell way behind Qball has now basically evened or surpassed Q again.
One thing I noticed today, Raonic is very good. Can Gasquet topple Nishikori? That’s a good one.
Andrew Miller · August 1, 2014 at 8:10 pm
Dan’s right, SteveJo and Sock can’t handle a high ball to the BH. They are in the danger zone over there. Johnson has some improvement on the bh – I like that he keeps working on his game. But Sock’s confidence is for real – he believes he can do well. Makes a difference.
Good point on Raonic, Gasquet, Nishikori too. All those guys love hard courts. Sock & Co. will have to steal the matches from them.
Andrew Miller · August 1, 2014 at 8:13 pm
Scoop was right – doubles matters. Sock’s confidence came from dubs with Pops.
Dan Markowitz · August 1, 2014 at 10:14 pm
Yes, but what has it gotten him? He reached semis of Newport and Atlanta, but only really beat Izzie. And he loses again to Raonic at DC without taking a set. He hasn’t exactly been on fire since winning Wimby doubles.
How about Gasquet? I didn’t see the match, but beating Nishikori without much resistance is impressive.
Scoop Malinowski · August 1, 2014 at 10:51 pm
Yes I think Young can win but it’s a long shot to get through Gasquet. He’s on a roll though. Funny things happen and Gasquet just lost in Bogota to Estrella 6364. Coach Skelly was saying the American backhands are weak because they don’t use the left hand enough on it, he suggests they should all hit lefty forehands for hours to make the left hand stronger on the backhand. Heckuva great point IMO.
Scoop Malinowski · August 1, 2014 at 10:54 pm
Andrew, actually Sock was saying this week he thinks the confidence roll really started on clay where he won some matches on clay in Paris and Nice. Dan, Sock has won matches in Newport, Atl and DC, he’s putting together strings of wins now. Remember, he used to bomb out early too often. He’s fixed that. I think he’s shown that he has clearly been on a singles roll since Wimbledon and he won the doubles in ATL with Pops.
Scoop Malinowski · August 2, 2014 at 8:35 am
I asked Raonic about the difference of playing and losing to Hewitt at Aus Open two years ago and this week: “The most important thing at that time was the kind of competitor I was at that stage of my career. And I think that’s what really got me through today. Just the right attitude and competing the right way. Obviously I think I’ve improved a lot since then. And that always helps. But in the key moments I managed to win those key points.”
Andrew Miller · August 2, 2014 at 8:52 am
Scoop Sock knows better than i do! I like for two years in a row sock shows no fear of clay. Coach s. Is right on the bh. Would like nothing better than a dy rising to occasion vs. The frenchman.
To me and not to dismiss dans point sock is hitting stride . Attitude game etc all pointing in the right direction and months ago we were talking about how u.s. atp players were getting to qtrs at atp events once in a blue moon and only in memphis. Dc may still be a regional tournament but it has an international draw and u.s. players are playing well.
Odd men out seem to be harry kudla and klahn. I did think harrison would light up the path and i think he did that – jury is still out on his coach but i still like the matchup with gambill. Kudla remains a mystery . Klahn just playing bad ball at the atp level game he needs to put racquet in right hand to learn the lefty two hander !
On the other hand remember this is still a u.s. non masters tournament. But if sock and co. Keep this up into the masters i think it will be time to declare that u.s. mens tennis is back in the black with a live pulse.
Andrew Miller · August 2, 2014 at 8:59 am
I dont dismiss the sock bh. Any atp vet out there is smart enough to go after it. Just saying that with socks new attitude even his bh could become more serviceble . U.s. mens players have a tradition of ironing out their games later than most players . Chang improved his serve. Agassi added a slice. Roddick shored up his bh. Same for blake. Fish his fh. Ginepri his health. Sampras his all court game.
Courier too. From 90 to 91 he just flat out got better. His bh was always weird but he made it work for a while.
Andrew Miller · August 2, 2014 at 9:00 am
Dan why no book on courier?
Scoop Malinowski · August 2, 2014 at 9:27 am
Did you know DY only had 49 ATP match wins before this event? IN ten years on tour that averages to about 5 a year. He sure looked like a solid vet yesterday in dismissing KA.