Last year’s Brisbane International final saw Federer come out on top in three sets 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 and was one of two encounters in 2015, the other coming during the semifinals of Indian Wells with Federer claiming a straight sets win 7-5, 6-4.
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Milos broke in the 9th game of the first set to take it 6-4 and once again in 7th game of the second set, while Roger wasted lone break point leading 2-1 in second set.
Federer had one chance to break Raonic’s serve in the second, but he could not take it and soon after Raonic converted on his only other break point.
He is the ninth different active player to achieve the hat-trick of wins at the same tournament, winning his 11th career title and fourth in Chennai in eight appearances.
Raonic didn’t have any trouble holding from there, and wrapped up the match in 1 hour, 27 minutes in a confidence-boosting victory just over a week out from the Australian Open, the first major of the season.
Although Raonic’s serve betrayed him throughout the match-he only served 57 percent first serves in, and surprisingly only five aces-his net play was effective.
Now Federer faces the same opponent in the 2016 final – a prospect to which a little spice is added by the fact that Raonic’s former coach, Ivan Ljubicic, now sits in the Federer box, having abandoned the big-serving Canadian to replace Stefan Edberg’s role on Team Federer.
“People have a certain perception of who he is and how he can be, which I find in a lot of situations can be very falsifying”.
Raonic’s booming serve is clearly an unparalleled weapon in this match-up – unfortunately for him Federer has been serving very well this week as well.
“You played great already past year, I thought the final was epic on many levels”, Federer told Raonic in the post-match presentation.
The set looked sure to remain on serve when Federer cruised into a 30-0 lead at 3-3 but he then lost three points in a row, and was broken when he put a weak backhand into the net after a fierce forehand down the line from Raonic.
Roger Federer overcame a stern challenge from Grigor Dimitrov to reach the semi-finals of the Brisbane International. Federer has won nine of their ten matchups while Raonic’s only victory was in 2014 at the Masters 1000 event in Paris.
At Auckland, New Zealand, Julia Goerges reached her sixth WTA Tour final and her first in four years when she beat qualifier Tamira Paszek 6-4, 6-2 in an ASB Classic semifinal between two players on the comeback trail.
After wasting a chance to serve out the second set in a nervous 10th game, Dimitrov dominated the tiebreaker and forced a decider.
“I just go hit balls”.
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“It’s sort of two steps: being able to step up and play great for two weeks, which I believe I can definitely do”.
