Dominic Thiem slaps a backhand behind Milos Raonic for a Hot Shot winner at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals on Thursday evening. Watch live tennis at tennistv.com. Photo: Peter Staples / ATP World Tour
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,...
David Goffin exclusively previews the must-win singles match between Milos Raonic and Dominic Thiem, with the winner advancing to the semi-finals at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.
The winner of Thursday's match at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals between Austria's Dominic Thiem and Canada's Milos Raonic will qualify for Saturday's semi-finals as the runner-up in Group Ivan Lendl. Thiem is the youngest man to win a singles match at The O2 since 2009. Any young Austrian tennis player will find himself toiling in the long alpine shadow of Thomas Muster, a former World No. 1. And yet it's perfectly possible that Thiem, a debutant at the season finale, could today out-perform Muster by qualifying for the semi-finals. For all his other achievements, ‘The Iron Man of Tennis’ never did that. "A star is born - big hug," Jose Mourinho wrote on the back of his...