Milos Raonic has handed Gael Monfils a lesson in how consistency trumps breathtaking shot-making during his 6-4, 6-4, win at the ATP Finals in London.
A sense of anxiety was circulating around the Canadian prior to the match about the state of his quad injury, which forced him out of the Paris Masters. Those reservations were proven irrelevant at the O2 Arena as the 25-year-old ran around the court freely to the delight of his camp.
Embarking on the start of both of their campaigns in the year-end tournament, it was the nerves of Monfils that played into the hands of Raonic at the start of the match. Struggling to generate both rhythm and consistency, a costly double fault from the Frenchman secured the first break of the match in the favour of the Wimbledon Finalist. Winning 91% of his service games on the tour this season, Raonic knew his opponent had a tough task to work his way back into the opening set.
Raonic’s dominance still failed to tame Monfils’ at-time breathless play. Earlier in the day Novak Djokovic described him as ‘one of the most entertaining players on the tour’. As the match progressed, so did the confidence of the Frenchman with a slam dunk smash and a shot between the legs. The difference between the two was that Monfils had the shots to delight the crowd, but Raonic had the consistency to dominate the socre. Firing a serve out wide, the fourth seed worked his way to two set points, converting his first with a forehand cross-court winner.
Continuing his momentum beyond the first set, Raonic had a 40-0 lead against his opponent’s serve, but failed to secure the breakthrough due to some gutsy defence from Monfils. Suffering the disappointment, Raonic redeemed himself in a classy fashion by producing a faultless backhand slice winner a couple games later to enable him to break for set and 4-3 lead. That one shot proved fatal to Monfils’ hopes of winning as the Canadian strolled his way towards the end of the match, sealing it with his 12th ace.
“I gave myself a lot of opportunities. I played well. I took care of my serve very efficiently. All those things came together nicely.” Said Raonic.
“I competed well, had a good attitude, hit the ball pretty well as well.”
Sunday’s straight sets performance appeared to be an almost faultless start for the injury-prone world No.4. On the other hand, a closer look into the current state of Raonic’s mindset reveals that he is still tentative when it comes to his health.
“I hesitated a little bit a few times, especially on the longer runs. I don’t think about it too much. That’s something very fortunate.I hope that I can get rid of those hesitations as the days go on.” The 25-year-old said.
“I feel like this is an ideal way to start considering the doubts that I was having. Some of the things I heard in the diagnosis were not the most positive, so this was a great way to turn around.” He later added.
There will be little time for him to tackle his hesitations as a clash with four-time defending champion looms on Tuesday. Yet to defeat the Serbian in his career, Raonic is under no illusion of how tough his upcoming task will be.
“It’s going to be a difficult task that I have ahead of me. I feel like I’m doing some things well.” He said about the upcoming clash.
Raonic currently has a losing 0-7 record against Djokovic and has only managed to take one set off of him.
