6 Responses

  1. Andrew Burton
    Andrew Burton January 21, 2013 at 8:03 am |

    One quick update: in press, Raonic apparently told reporters he was dealing with an inflamed metatarsal, and wasn’t sure he’d be able to play until 45 minutes before the match. So we can honor his attempt to fight through discomfort, while still acknowledging that Federer played a very sound match.

    As with Tomic, we had a 2nd set TB. Both players knew that one MB could be decisive, and for Federer, the one genuine risk of losing the match was going down in three TBs. His roar when the FH pass claimed the set showed how much he appreciated that danger.

  2. Jewell
    Jewell January 21, 2013 at 11:31 am |

    “Supposedly the weather has gotten a little colder, so the ESPN crew thinks that the conditions have gotten slower, which favor Federer. I actually think that kind of setting favors Raonic – gives him more time to set up for his shots and defend a little better.”

    FWIW, Raonic said after his previous match that he would prefer a day match, as he thought the faster conditions would favour him slightly.

    I’m with Tom Perrotta; I don’t think we’ll get more serve and volley with faster courts; we’ll get more serve and big forehands. And maybe just more big serve. Which for me would be a bit depressing, as that’s the reason I stopped paying attention to tennis years ago.

  3. Matt (secondservehack)
    Matt (secondservehack) January 21, 2013 at 11:58 am |

    “It was truly disappointing to see that tonight Milos Raonic’s game looked about as raw as it did when he broke into the scene. After 131 matches on the ATP tour, this beatdown showed an alarming lack of improvement from the young Canadian. The alarm bells have been set off, and the only one who can quiet them is Milos Raonic himself.”

    From a Canadian perspective, this is worrying. Tennis may be a comparably niche sport in the US, but in Canada it’s more of a microniche. The main sports network carries the slams and gives pretty decent coverage, but it’s just the ESPN broadcast. The only time there is actual Canadian coverage of a tennis event is during the Rogers Cup and generally that coverage is pretty terrible.

    A lot of this probably comes from not having any major star players come out of Canada. Raonic is actually the biggest star the country’s ever known (sorry, Nestor) and it does make a difference in terms of how much attention people give to tennis here. When he started doing well people noticed and you’d get people who normally don’t pay attention to anything other than hockey actually commenting on tennis matches. Before Raonic, the most popular tennis player among Canadians would have been Raonic’s opponent in the above match.

    So if Raonic were able to really make a breakthrough of the kind where he makes the semis or the finals of a Grand Slam (and it would have to be Slam because that’s the only time the average Canadian gets any exposure to tennis) it would be huge for the sport here. Kids might actually start playing it and tennis in Canada could gather some momentmum that would likely carry over for the next twenty years, but this would only happen if Raonic becomes a real star. Get it together, Milos!

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