Raonic is a player with a mission! The 2011 finalist wants to improve last year performance to keep on climbing the ATP ranking.
This time he beat Rochus in 1h and 23m blasting 26 aces (wow) and he looks to be the favourite to win the tournament.
He will play Stephanek in the semis. The ‘Worm’ defeated Querrey 7-6 (5) 6-0.
“He was not able to close out the tiebreak. (That) was in his mind a little bit in the beginning of the second set,” Stepanek said. “That’s where I took the chances and played aggressive and active and got the lead in the second set.”
The big upset was the defeat of Isner at the hand of an inspired Melzer that is finding his way back from an injury to … his back.
“Don’t want to lose in the quarterfinals, but you know, I don’t feel like I lost this match today, which is a good thing,” Isner said. “He won it. He was better than me, and he deserved it, really. I thought he played really well. That’s all there is to it. I just ran up against a guy who’s clicking on all cylinders.”
“He just played good points,” the American giant said. “Obviously on the match point, he hit a return off the back of the line. Hit that same exact return earlier when I was up 3-2 or something like that. He was just painting the lines a lot today, going for his shots, and they were all going in.”
“It’s very nice to beat the top seed, but for me it’s more important that my game is getting better,” Melzer said.
“My body holds up. … I had a lot of troubles with my back last year. It’s nice to be able to play pain-free on the court, putting the toe aside. OK, that’s going to heal, and going out there especially when there’s an important point. I have been playing well this week. That’s what made me top 10 in the world and (I’m) trying to do that again.”
© photo credit: Christopher Johnson
