Former world No 1 Victoria Azarenka stormed to her second Brisbane International title when she downed Germany’s Angelique Kerber in straight sets on Saturday.
Advertisement
Canadian Milos Raonic and Swiss star Roger Federer, the two finalists in 2015, moved into the semifinals Friday at the Pat Rafter Arena.
Tomic suffered a heart wrenching defeat at the hands of Milos Raonic in the semi-finals of the Brisbane event on Saturday.
The Canadian ran into a little trouble as he served for the match at 5-4, falling 15-30 behind after a powerful Federer return.
This time it was his serve that proved the difference, sending down 14 aces and winning 73% of his first serve points.
“It’s sort of confirming to myself and the people close to me that we’re on the right track, doing the right kind of work, and the progress is there”, Raonic said of his confident start to the season. “Last year, unfortunately, I lost very comfortably to Kei, and today played very different”.
Raonic stopped working with Ivan Ljubicic late previous year and recently hired Carlos Moya as a coach.
The 25-year-old will be keen to use the victory as a catalyst heading into the Australian Open later this month, where he will be hoping to improve on his quarter-final showing in Melbourne in 2015, his best performance in the tournament to date. The No. 4 seed won a staggering 93% of his first service points in the opening set. “It’s a great start to the season and I’m very happy”.
“He’s been good, but then top 10 is another story”, said Federer, who faces the big-serving Raonic in the final in Brisbane.
It took one hour and twenty-seven minutes for Milos Raonic to dethrone Roger Federer from his defending champion position at the Brisbane Open in a reversal of last year’s final.
The pair’s hard court record is 6-1 in favour of Federer.
He fired a succession of double-faults in the next game, giving Federer a breakpoint opportunity, but managed to hold to level the set at 2-2.
“So that’s what I’m going to strive for and try to play it on my terms as much as possible, rather than his”. Will Federer get the win once more?
It is Raonic’s eighth ATP title and one of his most important as he seeks to make good on Federer’s recent prediction that he can become a top-five player this year and establish himself as a force to be reckoned with.
Advertisement
For the first time, the host nation fielded two teams in the tournament, and Kyrgios and Gavrilova went through the week unbeaten as Australia Green, culminating in its 2-0 win over Ukraine to give Australia its second Hopman Cup title. Coric is a good young player but I think the extra match and sets he has played this tournament will leave him vulnerable to Wawrinka’s power.
