Milos Raonic qualified for the semi-finals of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, at The O2 in London, in second place from Group Ivan Lendl on Thursday night. The fourth seed ended the campaign of eighth seed and first-time qualifier Dominic Thiem 7-6(5), 6-3 to win their second meeting of the season (also Cincinnati), and improved to a 2-1 record in round-robin play.
Both players started in confident fashion – with Raonic hitting 10 winners and losing just two of his service points through his first three service games. There were no break points through to the tie-break. Raonic opened up a 2/0 lead, then lost four straight points as Thiem exploited the Canadian’s weaker backhand wing. But Raonic recovered, striking a smash winner for a 6/4 lead. On his second set point opportunity he hit his 11th ace to clinch the 53-minute opener. He’d hit 22 winners and won all but two of his first service points (21/23).
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Raonic continued his march to a 52nd match win of 2016 by breaking Thiem to 15, when the Austrian struck a backhand wide, in the first game of the second set. At 0-2, Thiem recovered from 15/40 by keeping Raonic on the move to remain in contention. But Raonic maintained his advantage, and, in choosing the right times to attack, with Thiem off-balance, created two match-point opportunities when leading 5-3. Thiem ended the 90-minute encounter with a backhand into the net.
Earlier in the day, with victory over alternate David Goffin, Novak Djokovic won Group Ivan Lendl and qualified for the semi-finals with a perfect 3-0 record. Raonic will now play the first-placed qualifier of Group John McEnroe in Saturday’s semi-finals.
Raonic, with a 2-1 record at the finale this year, is now 52-16 on the season. He won 91 per cent of his first-service points, while Thiem ended his year with four trophies and a 58-24 match mark.