-Toronto, ON
Canada’s No. 1 ranked player took care of business on Sunday afternoon in his hometown of Toronto. Milos Raonic ranked 20 in the World struggled early on but defeated Scott Griekspoor 7-6 (7-3) 6-3, 6-4 in two hours 23 minutes to give Canada a 3-1 victory in their World Group Play-off tie with the Netherlands. The Canadian side will be back into the main World Group in Davis Cup play in 2019.
Griekspoor, a surprise starter after Robin Hasse pulled out of the match with a nagging knee injury, held his own and played well throughout but the experience of Raonic along with his big serve and play at the net got Canada to the finish line and secured the tie.
Raonic started the match slowly, broken early on in the opening set but the 27-year old broke back in the fifth game to get back to even. Despite some solid groundstrokes from his fellow 27-year old opponent, Raonic made some smart decisions and was at the net constantly forcing Griekspoor into passing attempts.
The first set went to a tiebreak but Raonic came away victorious winning five of the final six points, Griekspoor looking a bit tight on several points in the pressure moments.
The second set was even through the first five games but in the sixth Raonic got the break he needed and the Canadian went on to capture the set and send the Netherlands into a deep hole.
In the third, tied 4-4, Griekspoor again fell under the pressure playing a terrible service game and was broken at Love. That gave Raonic the chance to close out the match and that’s exactly what he did. Fitting one of the biggest servers in the game closed out the match with a pair of aces, two of the 23 he fired throughout.
Raonic improves to 12-1 in Davis Cup home ties in his career.
With Canada clinching the win, the two teams decided not to play the fifth match in the best-of-five showdown. Smart move considering many of the players are hopping on planes and heading to Asia for the next swing on the ATP World Tour.
@Sportshorn
