Milos Raonic’s prospects of reaching the BNP Paribas Open quarterfinals were not particularly encouraging heading into the event.
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Goffin sealed victory 6-3 5-7 7-6(5) when his Swiss opponent netted a forehand in a closely contested tiebreak after a wildly fluctuating match that lasted almost two-and-a-half hours at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
A stubborn David Goffin played shrewd denial tennis to attain a Masters milestone. He fired seven aces past the Frenchman, but more importantly didn’t commit a double fault. Budding superstar Alexander Zverev of Germany, who lost to Rafael Nadal in a riveting fourth-round match Wednesday, is 6-6. “I think when I had opportunity on his second serve I was really aggressive, so that’s why it was a better second set”. “For the future I think it gives me a lot of confidence”.
“And I did what counted the most – I took care of my serve”. The injury was troubling after he missed much of the 2015 season, including the French Open, with nagging ailments.
Belgian David Goffin moved into the BNP Paribas Open semifinals on Thursday, getting past former U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic 7-6(4), 6-2 at Indian Wells for a spot in his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semifinal.
Raonic has only faced Goffin twice, with the Belgian upsetting Raonic on the Canadian’s favoured hardcourt surface at Basel, Switzerland in 2014. I watched a little bit of his match today. “He’s trying to, you know, maybe not overpower but take away time from his opponents”.
Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky and his family took in the game from Raonic’s player box.
“I did the things well”. “It’s great to have them here”.
Raonic’s 7-5, 6-3 win on Thursday evening over Gael Monfils of France put the Canadian in a position to perhaps become the lowest seed since Ivan Ljubicic in 2010 ton win a title at Indian Wells. Goffin and Cilic will face each other for just the second time, with Goffin winning the first match at the 2016 Davis Cup world group opening round.
The 25-year-old Goffin saved four set points in the 12th game of the first set before taking it in a tiebreaker.
Goffin, a slender five-foot-11, withstood the power of Cilic, who is 6-6 and outweighs Goffin by 46 pounds.
“I knew that on my serve I had to battle to win every service game, because sometimes he can serve bombs and in 10 seconds can win his games”, Goffin said.
He said on the tournament’s official website: “Before the match I was really confident”.
All of which means this “little” guy is poised to make an even bigger impact. “I have chances to go and improve the ranking and get close to the top 10 again”.
“Would I expect that I was going play like this sort of after everything that’s been going on the last few weeks?” Of course I don’t have a big serve. “Other than that, I think I’m one of the most open guys”. “That’s why tennis is a nice sport”.
In the women’s draw, Belarus’ Victoria Azarenka cruised into the semi-final stage of the competition after thrashing Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova. Monfils got some looks at his serve in the first set, and did recuperate an early break. He had 24 winners and just 13 unforced errors and broke the always unpredictable Monfils three times. After losing the first set, she took a medical timeout to have her upper thigh taped heavily. Nonetheless, Thursday’s action in Indian Wells will feature both Raonic and Goffin.
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Pliskova had 30 winners and 10 unforced errors. “First I am going to enjoy this win with my team”.
