Top-seed Roger Federer is beaten 6-4 6-4 by Milos Raonic in the final of the Brisbane International. Still, the four matches will serve as good preparation for the Australian Open.
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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.
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.
The top-seeded Pole, who saved two break points in the second set, will next face Anna-Lena Friedsam, who beat Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 2-6, 6-1. Will Federer get the win once more?
Milos Raonic was delighted to put last year’s injury troubles behind him with a 6-4 6-4 victory over Roger Federer to win the Brisbane International.
Tonight Raonic meets local favorite Bernard Tomic in the semifinal, where I think we will see a tightly contested match that may very well be decided by a few tiebreakers.
“I played some tough matches (against him) in the last, I don’t know, I guess 16 months or so”, Federer said of Raonic.
Raonic will provide another stern examination of those top-10 credentials after the Canadian easily took down France’s Lucas Pouille 6-4 6-4.
The 17-time Grand Slam champion gave Tomic a reality check after the 23-year-old lost 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-5) to Milos Raonic in the semi-finals of the Brisbane International on Saturday.
Tomic, who hasn’t been back to the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam since reaching the last eight at 2011 Wimbledon as an 18-year-old qualifier, had a career-high 40 match wins in 2015, and said he’s starting to find the consistency needed to be competitive at the majors. They have now won six titles on the trot – the longest winning streak in the category since the 1994 season when Gigi Fernandez and Natasha Zvereva were on a 28 match-winning streak.
Federer was playing eighth-seeded Dominic Thiem in the second semifinal.
“We’re really happy to have the possibility to be in another final here, and win another title”, she added.
“(There are) sort of two steps”, he said, “being able to step up and play great for two weeks, which I believe I can definitely do. That’s the thing I was most proud of.
Raonic, two games later, broke Federer for a 4-3 lead.
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Tomic will take huge positives away from the tournament, having notched his seventh career win over a top 10 player by beating Japanese star Kei Nishikori – an excellent “measuring stick” for assessing one’s game, according to Federer.
