Federer earned just one break point in the entire one-hour, 27-minute match, as Raonic defeated him for just the second time in 11 attempts.
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Milos Raonic of Canada reacts after missing a shot in the men’s final match against Roger Federer of Switzerland during the Brisbane International tennis tournament in Brisbane, Australia, Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016.
Raonic has vivid memories of last year’s Brisbane final, in which he climbed from a set and a break down to force a third set but then ran out of steam against Federer, who had a partisan crowd behind him as he sought a 1000th career win.
Federer struggled and was never in the game making far too many forced errors and showing a very rusty performance.
It was an eighth career title for Raonic, who missed the last three weeks of last season with a back injury, finished outside the top 10, and lost his coach Ivan Ljubicic – to Federer.
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. Victoria Azarenka and Samantha Crawford played the other semifinal.
Poland’s Radwanska joined Kvitova after withdrawing from the Sydney tournament with a left leg injury.
But she steadily improved in each round in Brisbane and showed in the final she will be a serious contender for the Australian Open.
A new year, the same finalists, a different result. She retired with a stomach virus during the first round of the Shenzhen Open in China last week.
Paszek was playing her seventh match at the tournament after winning her way through qualifying into the main draw.
“As long as I keep on playing and doing all that stuff it’s not going to go away faster, so I am going to rest up tomorrow”.
“It was very special because it was a final… plus, Rod Laver and Roy Emerson were on the court to hand me the trophy and be in the picture with me and the number 1,000”.
However, Federer began to tire in the second and Dimitrov picked up the pace, forcing the set to a tiebreak before pouncing on some loose serving to level the match.
After an exchange of breaks early in the third, Tomic clinched it on his first match point, avenging a loss to Nishikori past year.
The victory will bode well for the Canadian, who will now go into next week’s Australian Open on the back of that momentum. “I’ve come here three times now and three times I’ve made the final, so I’m very happy”.
“I’m feeling good… I didn’t want to play if I wasn’t somewhat prepared, so I worked really hard in the off season to try to catch up a bit”. In 2015, she suffered a thigh strain that saw her slip down the world rankings.
If there’s anything that I’ve learnt from watching Djokovic play, it’s that he saves his best moments for the biggest stages, and I’m confident that he will save his best match in Doha for the final against his rival.
“I’ve still got a cough and the throat is a bit weird”, he said.
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Bouchard will face American Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the first round in Hobart.
