Raonic powers to victory

“Missile” Milos Raonic fired 18 aces to upset world No 6 Tomas Berdych to capture his fifth career title at the US$567,530 ATP Thailand Open at Impact Arena in Muang Thong Thani yesterday.

The Canadian young gun, who won a title in San Jose earlier this year, used his trademark huge serves to shock the world No 6 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 in just 67 minutes to claim his second trophy of the season.

“I think I struggled a lot more than him in the beginning. I was finding the rhythm better. In that tie-breaker, it just came down to one return. And I was playing pretty solid afterwards. The first return gave me a boost,” said the 22-year-old, who became the first Canadian to win the ATP Thailand Open. 

In the battle of explosive serves, witnessed by Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya and 2005 Miss Universe Natalie Glebova from Canada, both players relied on their serves rather than groundstrokes to hold serves comfortably during the first nine games. Berdych came closest to challenging Raonic in the ninth game, which was extended to three deuces and even had a set point after the Canadian netted an easy forehand. 

The Canadian delivered one of his over-200kph serves to set up an easy point and escaped from the clutches with a forehand winner. In the tie-break, Raonic unexpectedly whacked a service return winner to break Berdych right at the start and held on to that tightly. At 6-4, his 223kph serve was too much for the Czech who tamely put it into the net.

Raonic managed an early break in the second game to take a 2-0 lead in the second set after the top seed buried two successive shots into the net. At 5-3, Raonic served a 226kph ace to set up a championship point before blasting a forehand winner to take the title.

“It’s special for me to win here because I came to this country for the second time and I immensely enjoyed it here. I’m happy with how I dealt with it the whole week, I found my way through and picked up the pieces,” said Raonic, touted as the future of the men’s tennis. “It’s nice to hear that but it’s not something that crosses my mind. My focus is what I have to do to be able to compete with the top four guys. To focus on what I need to do, to have a chance in big tournaments against those guys,” added Raonic who was coached by former world No 3 Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, a 2006 finalist.

It was another disappointing loss for Berdych, who went down to Raonic in their first encounter 6-4 2-6 6-2 in the third round of the Cincinnati Masters last year. The Czech lost all three finals he reached this year.

“Today he was even exceptional, he served even better. He didn’t give me much chance, but I was able to keep up with him because I was serving well. I was trying to win a final. If you look at it one way, I missed the title this year. If you look at it the other way, it was my third finals of the year. But in the end, the results are more important. So far, I have consistently played better. Of course, I would like to win the title. My goal is to be as high as possible in the rankings, not just trying to get to the quarter-finals but to win some titles.”

Raonic left Bangkok last night $102,450 richer with his prize money. He is playing next in Tokyo while Berdych, who will play in Beijing, received $54,000.

Third-seeded Jamie Murray of Britain and John Peers of Australia defeated Tomasz Bednarek of Poland and Johan Brunstrom of Sweden 6-3 3-6 10-6 to claim the doubles title. Jamie became the second Murray to lift a title here after his younger brother Andy won the singles here in 2011. He and Peers split a $31,100 cheque as winners. They have won three titles together so far.