Tomic fell at the semi-finals of the Brisbane event on Saturday, losing 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-5) to Milos Raonic, who will meet Federer in a rematch of last year’s decider on Sunday night at Pat Rafter Arena.
Advertisement
Federer managed just one break point as Raonic served four double faults in the fourth game after having a medical time out for a right leg injury.
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.
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.
Raonic, whose season has been hampered by injury, closed the set out, but came off the court following the third game of the second set with a thigh problem.
Coric, seeded eighth, has had to play four matches against Marcel Granollers, Austin Krajicek, Roberto Bautista Agut, and Aljaz Bedene.
Federer battled hard to put the set back on level terms, but Raonic’s thunderbolt serve proved to be impenetrable.
“It’s for every young player an incredible experience to play with probably the greatest of all time”, Thiem said.
Victoria Azarenka is in good form ahead of the year’s first Grand Slam – Australian Open. And though Federer had only lost to Raonic once, many of their matches were tight affairs, and nearly all included tie-breaks.
ROGER FEDERER, on facing Milos Raonic in the final.
Returning at Shenzhen was a relief for the Canadian, whose run to the 2014 Wimbledon final and the Australian and French semi-finals in the same year saw her touted as a future world No 1.
“The body is not quite ready, you know, so it’s good to get through it without any issues”, he said. “I’m happy with the way I’ve been able to start the year and how things are progressing”, said Raonic, ranked number 14 in the world.
Federer fell to 88-48 in tour finals after reaching a third consecutive Brisbane final, while Raonic improved to 8-8.
Eventually, after another break point was saved, the Canadian did capitalise on Federer’s slack serving, moving into a 5-4 lead and giving himself an opportunity to serve for the set.
“Today was, I am not going to say some of the best tennis I have played because the rallies were really short, but I feel like I have definitely got better”, Watson said. Next, he defeated Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-4.
Advertisement
At the Hopman Cup in Perth, Andy Murray and Heather Watson each had 6-3, 6-4 singles wins over German opponents Alexander Zverev and Sabine Lisicki, and combined to win the mixed doubles by the same margin to secure a 3-0 win that kept Britain in contention for Saturday’s final.
