Tennis Prose




Jan/17

6

Nadal goes down fighting to Raonic in Brisbane

milos raonic
By Louise Belcourt

Tonight was a test to see where Nadal is at after being sidelined for the past 3 months with a wrist injury.
Has the rest and recovery paid off? Has his confidence returned? Will he ever rise to the lofty heights of his past? At 30 can he win another grand slam? Or will his 14 grand slam trophies sit lonely on the shelf?
In a sold out semi final at the Brisbane International on 6 January, Nadal would test his game against the world number 3, Milos Raonic.
Unfortunately for Nadal, the big serving Canadian is coming off a spectacular year. He is the defending Brisbane International champion. The Wimbledon runner-up. World ranked behind only “Sir” Andy Murray and the legendary “cannot be beaten” Novak Djokovic.
Nadal got off to a great start with the first break of serve at 3-2, and held on to take the first set 6-4. The first set saw 74% of first serves in for Nadal. Raonic fired 8 aces, but threw in 3 double faults.
Nadal was forcing numerous errors from the Canadian giant, by giving him no time to the ball. Even his trademark serve and rush to the net were under pressure as the fleet of foot Mallorcan managed to reach and return amazing passing shots. Those many hours on the practice courts at home, seemed to have paid off with no signs of the wrist injury or the low confidence levels we have seen of late.
At 2-2 in the second set, Nadal made his charge with perfectly placed and weighty ground strokes, and menacing return of serves at the 6 foot 5 inch Canadians feet. When faced with a critical break point, Raonic used his trademark power serve to get out of trouble.
Nadal had all the tricks in the book, throwing deft drop shots to mix up his heavy hitting topspin power game. The Canadian did not look like he could find a way to rally equally with one of the best baseline grinders in the world.
Picking up his determination and first serve percentages, Raonic turned the tide. With Nadal serving at 3-4, Raonic’s big and deep hitting gave him a break of serve. The Canadian then served 3 aces to win the 2nd set 6-3.
You could see a spark in his eyes, a fire that said – I am the world number 3 for a reason! ‘Don’t mess with me, I am not here to lose’.
The stats for the second set said it all – Raonic fired downed 8 aces, 17 winners and only 9 unforced errors.
The 3rd set started like the 2nd ended with Raonic breaking Nadal’s serve in the opening game.
Now you wondered, would the doubt creep back into Nadal’s mind? There was a lot of chatter to his player’s box, as winners started flowing from Raonic.
The tables had turned with Nadal hitting a little too deep and a little too wide, and Raonic making unbelievable winners, and untouchable serves.
Deeply zoned in his meditation at the change of ends, Raonic came out to serve for the match at 5-4. True to his ranking Raonic won his serve to love, to make it to the semi final, with a 4-6 6-3 6-4 victory.
The immensely popular and disheartened Nadal bid adieu to the sold out Brisbane crowd.
Clearly elated, Raonic said of the turnaround in the match “I think it was sort of when I had my, let’s say, back against the wall and I started being a bit more aggressive on the returns.”
Raonic understood his desire to come to the net helped create the victory. “So coming forward, sometimes you come in on what you truly believe is a clear opportunity. Sometimes you have to create that opportunity. And out of 35 times, I would pretty much guarantee not all were opportunities to come in. Sometimes you have to step up and put that pressure.”
Nadal not to be disappointed by the loss said “Well, I lost against third of the world. Very close match. I had been playing six matches already this year. That’s positive for me, winning five, losing the sixth.”
“It’s important to win a lot of matches, of course, but at the same time it’s important to — when I lose, it’s important to lose with just a small difference.”

“So that’s what happened today, and that’s, at the same time, with being negative, because losing always is negative. But the result was so close, and that’s positive, no? Because that mean that my mind was ready to keep fighting until the end, and that’s what I did.”
Nadal was tested and did not pass today. But I believe Nadal will fight to greater heights this year.
Meanwhile Raonic is into the semi final to take on Grigor Dimitrov.
Stay tuned!

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6 comments

  • Scoop Malinowski · January 6, 2017 at 10:45 am

    Wow – that’s a quality report Louise thank you – another very valuable win for Raonic to defy and subdue such a desperate and hungry Rafa Nadal – interesting that the new coach of Rafa who is the previous coach of Raonic did not factor into the result as one would have expected –

  • Hartt · January 6, 2017 at 12:11 pm

    I understand there is a lot of interest in Rafa but for a headline I prefer “Raonic beats Nadal in a Tough Contest.”

    Thoroughly enjoyed this report. Was glad she mentioned the first serve %, that is often a key to how well Milos is doing. If it is at 60% or above Milos usually wins. It was below that in the first set but he improved as the match went on, so the final figure was 64%.

    As you can imagine, I am beyond thrilled with this result. Want to see Milos get the Brisbane title again this year. 🙂

  • Scoop Malinowski · January 6, 2017 at 1:19 pm

    Okay Hartt if Raonic beats Rafa next time we will emphasize Raonic in the headline 🙂 But our contributor Louise in Brisbane suggested this headline and I just rolled with it – Have a funny feeling Raonic now has Rafa’s # and could continue to inflict these kinds of painful beatings on Rafa – Raonic just needs to figure out how to solve Andy and Djokovic and then watch out –

  • Hartt · January 6, 2017 at 2:31 pm

    OK Scoop, I will hold you to your headline promise!

    I think Novak will be the main obstacle for Milos. Milos won against Andy a few times early on and had some close matches against him last season. So I think he could get a win over Murray this season.

    Outside of a match in Rome a while ago, where Milos won the first set, took the second to a TB, only to lose the third, I can’t remember a match where he had a good shot at winning against Novak. Novak’s excellent returning skills make him an especially bad match-up for Milos. Also, they often practice together so Novak must know the Raonic game very well. I wonder, too, if Milos has too much respect for Novak. Early in Milos’ career Novak said some kind things to Milos’ parents about him and Milos was grateful for that. And of course they can speak Serbian together. But if Raonic wants to get to the top he must be able to defeat Djokovic.

  • Andrew Miller · January 6, 2017 at 6:09 pm

    Kudos to Louise Belcourt, really captured the match, Raonic’s skyrocketing confidence and the fierceness that defined both in this match. We need to admit tennis misses Nadal.

  • Scoop Malinowski · January 7, 2017 at 8:33 am

    That incrdible win by Djokovic yesterday over Verdasco saving FIVE match points could be the remedy to spark the real Djokovic to show himself again after a six month disappearing act – That is the kind of superhuman win that can make a player feel like superman and Djokovic has not had one of those stunning wins for a long time but now he has to face Andy in the final and the outcome of this match could set the tone for 17 – If Djokovic prevails the old order will be restored but if Andy wins Djokovic’s self doubts about beating Andy will grow – meanwhile Raonic Kei and Dimitrov could have something to say also –

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