TENNIS ATP WASHINGTON – It took Milos Raonic just 1 hour and 8 minutes to beat his fellow Canadian Vasek Pospisil in the final of the Citi Open in Washington.
It took Milos Raonic just 1 hour and 8 minutes to beat his fellow Canadian Vasek Pospisil in the final of the Citi Open in Washington. The Canadian born in Montenegro took his first title of 2014 ending an 11 month wait to win a tournament. His last trophy came in Bangkok when he defeated Tomas Berdych in the final.
The favourite won the final and it was easier than expected. Raonic started well taking the first set easily and then remained in control in the second to close the match. Pospisil didn’t play as well as he has done in the last days, probably because on Saturday the 24 year old had to play the final set of his quarter final match against Giraldo and then the very tough semifinal against Gasquet which left him tired for the final as he later admitted, “It was a combination of him playing very well and me being a little bit heavy-legged, and just ran out of a little bit of gas. It took me a little bit to get into the match, get my groove, and get the legs going. But credit to him. He played very well.”
The first set was a no-contest, Raonic broke serve 3 times out of 4 return games and only gave Pospisil one chance to break back which he saved with his serve. This fundamental was near perfect for the world number 6 (with this win he overtook Ferrer in the ATP Rankings), he placed 5 aces (2 double faults) and lost only one point with his first serve. “It’s great the way it started,” said the Canadian, “I couldn’t have asked for more. I had a chance to break in every single game in that first set. Then I continued to play solid after that.”
The second set was closer, Pospisil seemed to shake off some of the fatigue he carried from his intense Saturday, but he never had the opportunity to break his opponents serve. Raonic continued to serve with the same efficacy and was deadly in taking advantage of a moment of difficulty by Pospisil in the tenth and final game of the match.
This was Raonic’s 6th career title and it arrived just before the start of the Rogers Cup in Toronto to increase the expectation and interest in the Canadian Master 1000. Last year (the tournament was held in Montreal) Raonic reached the final beating Pospisil in the semifinal and losing to Nadal in the final. Raonic will make his debut in Toronto against the winner of Melzer vs Sock whilst Pospisil will face Gasquet in the first round, just a couple of days after their semifinal in Washington.
