Federer, who said afterwards that he was dealing with illness, struggled to trouble Raonic’s serve and was broken in the ninth game of the match before the Canadian served out the first set 6-4.
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Federer served at just 45 per cent in the first set and that played into the hands of Raonic, who generated chances with hard, deep ground strokes that locked up the 34-year-old’s movement. It was just Raonic’s second win over the top seed in 11 previous meetings.
Azarenka, 26, won her maiden Brisbane title in 2009, and took control of the match against world No 10 Kerber after an early trade of breaks in the first set and then peppered the court with her powerful groundstrokes.
Federer planned to head to Melbourne and rest for a few days before getting into his fine-tuning for the Australian Open, which starts January 18.
Coric is a good young player but I think the extra match and sets he has played this tournament will leave him vulnerable to Wawrinka’s power.
Federer, who was suffering from flu, in the first week of 2016 defeated D. Thiem 6-1,6-4, while Raonic beat local guy Tomic 7-6,7-6 in the semifinals.
In the only two-set match of the four quarterfinals, Raonic dismissed France’s Lucas Pouille 6-4, 6-4 on Friday. “And I know there were some difficulties around the world in 2015, so hopefully in 2016 we can learn to love each other a little bit more and the world becomes a safer place”.
But Federer, having produced a scintillating display in his semi-final on Saturday, was off-colour here, finishing with 19 unforced errors, compared to 16 winners.
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. “Past year gave me a huge boost of confidence, so I’m happy to be playing here in Brisbane and playing this well”. “I’d like to congratulate Milos on a great start to the year here in Brisbane”, said the world No. 3 at the presentation ceremony.
This year, the outlook began under something of cloud: Yes, it rained in Brisbane, but the women’s Premier tournament also lost its top three seeds with injury before they had completed a match, and then came rumours that the top seed in the men’s draw, Federer, was ill.
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. “[It’s the] first tournament of the year, so I’m not that anxious”.
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Regardless of what will happen, I’m sure we will see some good matches as the ATP season is underway and heading for the Australian Open.
