Milos Raonic is not just a serve. Think of him much more along the lines of a “Serve +1”. Raonic defeated Dominic Thiem 7-6(5), 6-3 on Thursday evening at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, dominating the short points and fusing together his two biggest weapons into one lethal package. Serve +1 is a ruthless, doubling down strategy of purposefully following the serve with a forehand. Raonic’s primary pattern of play is to then typically match that combination up against a backhand return, and then a defensive backhand on the run. The percentage breakdown below between hitting a forehand or backhand immediately behind either a first or second serve clearly shows the efficiency of Raonic’s strategy. Raonic 1st Serves 85%...
Milos Raonic talks about his win against Dominic Thiem and making the semi-finals at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. Watch live tennis at tennistv.com.
Watch highlights of Milos Raonic and Novak Djokovic reaching the semi-finals of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London. 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,...