And though Federer had only lost to Raonic once, many of their matches were tight affairs, and nearly all included tie-breaks.
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“It was tough. Grigor’s a great shotmaker, the future’s ahead of him in the game”, Federer said after setting up a semi-final against Austrian youngster Dominic Thiem.
The bomb-serving Canadian kicked off 2016 in style by earning his second career win over Roger Federer in the Brisbane final on Sunday.
A solitary break in each set proved enough for the aggressive Raonic, who gave up just six points on his first serve at Pat Rafter Arena.
In a rematch of last year’s final, Raonic took advantage of some uncharacteristic Federer service wobbles, winning in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4.
Tomic will, however, 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. The Canadian first got two break point opportunities in the fifth game and a third in the ninth game, but Federer was able to defend all three to keep a foothold in the set.
Over in Chennai, India, Stan Wawrinka seeks his first title of the season and his third consecutive title at the Aircel Chennai Open. Still, the four matches will serve as good preparation for the Australian Open. Tomic prevailed 6-3 1-6 6-3 against the 2014 US Open runner-up today to continue his push to the world’s top 10 as he appears to be finally realising his potential after some turbulent early years on Tour.
“This year you deserve it, well played and good luck at the Aussie Open”.
He asked organisers to put his first match back a day, and said he only started to feel better on Wednesday morning.
“I’m just happy to be this fit and feeling this good on court”. “I have a base there”, Federer said, “so I think within three, four days I should be back at 100 percent”.
Swiss Master Roger Federer, who has now heard Bernard Tomic speaking about his top ten goals for quite some time, will believe the latter making it to the A-listers once he sees it. Kerber beat Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2, 6-3.
Raonic pushed Federer in three close sets in 2015 and although he said he was playing better now than 12 months ago, he conceded facing the Swiss great was always hard.
“Every match you win against a player like this is just confidence for myself, and step by step I’m achieving my goal this year”, Tomic said.
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“Even though I was a bit sick, I still made the final”, Federer, who has been battling the flu, noted.
