The defending champion Roger Federer has cruised into the final of the ATP Brisbane International after overpowering Dominic Thiem in straight sets.
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“Obviously this win is huge”, the world number 18 said after taking out the second seeded Japanese to set up a semi-final against big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic.
“You understand the speeds more and you’re more comfortable”.
Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic accounted for American Coco Vandeweghe in straight sets and Caroline Garcia won the all-French match with Kristina Mladenovic 7-6 (7/4), 6-4.
That will guarantee Tomic a top-16 seeding in Melbourne for the first time in his career, meaning he would avoid a match up with world No. 1 Novak Djokovic until at least the fourth round.
Defeating Tomic 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-5), Raonic will now meet Federer in a rematch of last year’s decider on Sunday night at Pat Rafter Arena.
In the only two-set match of the four quarterfinals, Raonic dismissed France’s Lucas Pouille 6-4, 6-4 on Friday.
The two-time Australian Open champion reached the Brisbane International semifinals by beating eighth-seeded Roberta Vinci 6-1, 6-2.
He started strongly, adding some pace to his serve and trying to work the taller Raonic around the court, but couldn’t make the strategy pay off.
Federer made a late start at the Brisbane International and didn’t play his first match of 2016 until Thursday, something he had requested in order to give himself as much time as possible to recover from a flu-like illness he had contracted from his young children, and also required a groin massage during his quarterfinal match against Grigor Dimitrov.
“People have a certain perception of who he is and how he can be, which I find in a lot of situations can be very falsifying”.
Raonic didn’t have any trouble holding from there, and wrapped up the match in 1 hour, 27 minutes in a confidence-boosting victory just over a week out from the Australian Open, the first major of the season.
Neither player was able to break serve but Raonic stood up in the big moments, even though Tomic was able to twice fight his way back from 5-1 down to level the scores in both tiebreakers.
Roger Federer was sick last week and though he was improving every day, there were still some lingering effects.- Reuters pic, January 10, 2016.
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.
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The Australian, who has been criticised for poor behaviour in the past, went from 78th in the world to his current career-high previous year when he claimed a third tour title in Colombia. “I still have a cough, and I was just one step too slow”.
