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In less than an hour, Milos Raonic is through to the Miami Open quarter-finals
Milos Raonic said he prepared with the same fortitude, the same intensity as he would have, had he been about to face Rafael Nadal Tuesday in Miami.
That was his scheduled opponent, but after the Spanish star retired in the third set of his first-round match against No. 94 Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia, Raonic ended up facing a far less daunting opponent – and one who had never before been on the receiving end of his monster serve.
The result was predictable, a 6-0, 6-3 victory that took exactly 54 minutes to complete.
“I’m happy with the way I played. I played efficient, maybe a bit of a letdown on those last few return games but overall took care of my serve, mixed it up well and really stepped up after a pretty good match (Monday) night,” Raonic told the media in Miami. “I executed my game plan well, and I knew there was a challenge and an opportunity ahead of me. And I made the most of it.”
The quarter-finals of the Miami Open will be a step up for Raonic because, despite the absence of Nadal, Stan Wawrinka and Andy Murray in his half of the draw as the business end of the tournament arrives, he still will face a formidable challenge in big-serving Aussie Nick Kyrgios, the No. 24 seed.
“I think we play similar. We’re both trying to take care of our serves, trying to get ahead in the points and dictate from the centre of the court. So I think it’s going to be a fight about who will get ahead there, who can do a better job at that,” Raonic said. “It’s going to be important to serve well and especially, when you have looks on second serves to go for it, play deep and not give the guy too much court.”
Raonic will have an extra day of rest between the two matches, a day off he doesn’t need and probably would rather do without. After his victory over Jack Sock Monday, the Canadian said that he preferred to play every day in a best-of-three set format, that the off days created a lull that wasn’t necessarily in the regular routine for most of the tournaments outside the Grand Slams.
He won’t have a day off before the semi-final, if he gets through Kyrgios.
Raonic has had some good battles with the Aussie, who won’t turn 21 until the end of April. This will be the first time they have met outside the Grand Slams, the first time they will play best-of-three.
Their first meeting came in the first round of the 2014 French Open; Raonic prevailed in straight sets. The two met again just a month later at Wimbledon with Kyrgios coming off the high of a surprise upset win over Nadal; Raonic lost the first set in a tiebreak and went on to win in four to reach the semi-finals.
They met again at Wimbledon last year, with Raonic coming off the foot surgery that caused him to take a pass on Paris; Kyrgios won that one in four sets.
