TENNIS – Rafael Nadal had to fight hard to overcome Milos Raonic in three sets with 4-6 6-2 6-4 after two hours and 35 minutes to keep alive his hope to win the Sony Open in Miami for the first time in his career after losing three finals in 2005, 2008 and 2011. Nadal will meet 2010 Miami finalist Tomas Berdych who beat Alexander Dolgopolov 6-4 7-6(3). Diego Sampaolo
Nadal and Raonic met for the first time since their last match in the final of the Rogers Cup in Montreal. Nadal won all their previous head-to-head matches without dropping a single set.
Rafa Nadal dropped just nine games in the whole tournament. However, Nadal failed to capitalize on three break point chances in the first set before committing a double fault on break point at 5-4 down dropping the first set of the tournament.
Raonic dropped serve for the first time in the tournament with a double fault after leading 30-0 in the opening game of the second set. Raonic committed again another double fault to go down 0-3. Nadal cruised to 4-0 in the second set with a double break to draw level with 6-2 forcing the match to the third set.
“When you start losing opportunities, you feel that you are going to be in trouble. I was lucky I started the second set with a break. That was very important for me. It’s very hard to play against these kind of players especially when you didn’t start the match the way you would like. I felt that I finished the match playing much better”, said Nadal.
The Canadian player fended off a break point at the start of the decisive set. In the sixth game Nadal held serve to love with four forehand winners. In the following game Nadal rallied from 0-30 to break serve in the seventh game for 4-3 before closing out the third set with a service game to love to reach the Miami semifinal for the sixth time in his career and for the 52nd time in a Master 1000 event. Nadal was in control of the third set where he lost just four points on serve.
“For me to be in the semifinals after losing early in Indian Wells is very important for my confidence. There is a big difference between the quarter final and the semifinal. Tomorrow I have another day to try to keep playing better. This is a tournament where I really feel the love of the people so much, so I am going to try my best to keep playing well”, said Nadal.
Nadal leads 17-3 in his previous head-to-head matches against his semifinal rival Berdych and won their last 16 matches in the past seven years.
Raonic, who will move to the top-10 next week, showed the fruits of his work with his coach Ivan Ljubicic. “A lot of things we have working on I managed to incorporate and I feel like I am much better ahead. I dealt with the situation much better than I would have a few months ago”, said Raonic.
