Two days after upsetting Stan Wawrinka in five sets, Milos Raonic will be back in action to face Gael Monfils in the Australian Open quarterfinals on Wednesday. The winner will run into either Andy Murray or David Ferrer.
Milos Raonic and Gael Monfils will be going head-to-head for the third time in their careers when they battle for a place in the semifinals of the Australian Open on Wednesday night. Monfils has won both of their previous meetings, but they have not faced each other since 2013. The Frenchman prevailed 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-3 on the indoor hard courts of Stockholm in 2011 and 6-4, 6-2 on the grass of Halle two seasons later.
Now, however, Raonic is an established force at or near the top of the game. The Canadian currently registers 10 spots off his career-high ranking of No. 4 in the world, but that can be attributed almost entirely to a 2015 foot injury. He is back in business for 2016 and has arguably been the best player throughout the month of January. Raonic is a perfect 9-0 with a title in Brisbane (upset Roger Federer 6-4, 6-4 in the final) and victories this fortnight over Lucas Pouille, Tommy Robredo, Viktor Troicki, and Stan Wawrinka.
Monfils benefited from Rafael Nadal’s early elimination when he faced Alex Kuznetsov in the fourth round and got past the Russian in four sets. The 25th-ranked Frenchman preceded that victory with straight-set defeats of Yuichi Sugita, Nicolas Mahut, and veteran compatriot Stephane Robert. This is Monfils’ first trip to the Australian Open quarters and just third appearance in the quarters of a major outside Roland Garros.
Although Monfils has no reason to apologize for having enjoyed an extremely favorable draw, the bottom line is Raonic is more battle-tested and simply playing better tennis–better than Monfils and almost anyone else. The 2014 Wimbledon semifinalist has been borderline unbreakable aside from during a brief hiccup during his five-set upset of Wawrinka. It is hard to see Monfils staying focused in enough service games to stay within serious striking distance of his on-fire opponent.
Pick: Raonic in 3
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On another note, just want to say : Gosh how well was rafa playing in Abu Dhabi. Honestly , he was playing well enough there to make at least a SF at slam level or even final.
yes vr but playing well when it didn’t matter.
are the early rounds of slams becoming even more of a problem for him than before? the answer has to be yes and it’s very worrying.
yup…you are right.. quite worrying indeed. The only comfort I can take is that he is still CAPABLE of playing well enough. Another worrying thing is that rafa seems to have kind of lost some faith in his brand of tennis against the ruthless power hitting brand of tennis
yes vr but that does raise more questions doesn’t it? because that suggests that the mental issues are still controlling him despite his protestations to the contrary. i am so depressed he hasn’t brought people in to help. look at what new coaches are bringing to lesser players.
this stuff about the power hitting is surely just a rationalisation of his problems…the old rafa would have had no real problems with it.
—rafa seems to have kind of lost some faith in his brand of tennis against the ruthless power hitting brand of tennis.—
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Is there any of his actual quotes available?
Actually not true. Rafa had faith enough to beat Raonic at Abu Dhabi. What he lacks is calm.
He was already feeling the strain at Doha in each round. When it came to Novak, he had reverted to his more predictable game. Watch the highlights, after Novak hit his shot bsck at Rafa, Novak immediately moved to the other corner to expect Rafa’s next shot and true enough Rafa hit there to him. It was so predictable that it got ridiculous!
Rafa is not going to win the rally vs Novak as Rafa doesnt have his BHDTL, at least its not ready yet. So Novak could hit CC and DTL and keeps Rafa guessing whilst Rafa only hits CC and so its predictable.
I guess Rafa needs to win tour titles including the Masters, to regain some of his confidence and calm. I feel he’ll do better on clay at the Masters and at FO, as he’s just too good that even when less calm, he still can get to the later rounds. If he loses at the later rounds, at least he knows he loses to better players, not loses to his own nervousness.
what is not true? all the talks about strings and flat hitters having and advantage and saying the game has changed and I am trying to adapt etc clearly indicates his faith in his brand of tennis to overcome the power hitting brand has decreased , doesn’t it?
Not saying that’s the reason he is losing matches like this and that he has stopped believing he can beat these guys but his mentality seems to have taken a step back.
As I said after doha, he needs time and match wins to gain more faith in his relatively new game. It is normal to have these doubts when you are hardly winning at slam level.
Yes, clay will be crucial and I believe he will fare much better. He surface will help him regain some calm and his serve won’t be a liability as such. He pressure of hugging the baseline all the time will also be reduced somewhat.
@amy, yes it does raise lots of questions…true…. I believe he should at least get help on his serving if not anything else. He has a much inferior serve to his rivals now…
vr..yes i think so too…if he had even a slightly better serve then he would not be losing the matches to nando, fabio and brown…
i read somewhere that they had turned down offers from experts to help which depressed me inordinately.
just because he got shoulder problems before doesnt mean they can’t find better ways of doing things. this conservatism is very unhelpful as toni isn’t great on technical aspects like the serve…
also it puts a lot of additional pressure on rafa’s fragile mental state going out playing with a poor serve. the whole philosophy of getting one more ball back is really detrimental if he is not strong mentally.
“it puts a lot of additional pressure on rafa’s fragile mental state going out playing with a poor serve. the whole philosophy of getting one more ball back is really detrimental if he is not strong mentally.”
I think it’s the other way around.
It’s a chicken and egg situation.
He needs a ‘calm’ coach like Moya who’s helped calm Milos.
In actuality, he needs a bit of both.
I think Moya has definitely helped with both aspects of Raonic’s game – everything physically has improved, from his previously poor BG to his willingness to approach the net and his affectiveness there.
An incredible transformation.
Bah – E-ffectiveness, EEEEEEE-ffectiveness.
#ProfReadFailure
#HashtegJokings
gosh hawks…i am like a broken record going on about his needing a new coach to give him calm plus a mind doctor like the one konta has used to go up the rankings!! of course it’s all circular!
but he does need a serve coach as well, unless he gets someone who also knows a lot about the serve ie boris with nole..
affectiveness is very freudian no?
amy AT 2:05 PM
—i am like a broken record—
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I agree.
—He needs a ‘calm’ coach like Moya who’s helped calm Milos.—
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Moya has helped him since he was 12 years old.
amy JANUARY (1:48 PM),
—i read somewhere that they had turned down offers from experts to help which depressed me inordinately—
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Obviously on “T-X”. 😆
Agree with everything you’ve said Amy.
Without change, it is a vicious cycle.
Without a mental coach/sports psychologist (he should get both IMO), he cannot win without confidence and without confidence he cannot win.
His technique and speed is the symptom, not the problem IMO.
—all the talks about strings and flat hitters having and advantage and saying the game has changed and I am trying to adapt etc clearly indicates his faith in his brand of tennis to overcome the power hitting brand has decreased , doesn’t it?—
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He answered questions from journalist.
I dont view it that way. One has to adapt to change(s) to survive in any trade, tennis is no different.
Fed for eg has changed his racket to a larger one. He had changed his S&V based game to a baseline game when they slowed the courts after the 1990s. He now feels his baseline game is inadequate to win him big titles and beat his main rivals so he makes changes to his game again to play more at the net.
Rafa sensed that the balls in use now are not friendly to his topspins so he has to change the way he hits the balls. The players these days are taller and have DHBHs so they may be better at handling Rafa’s topspins. They hit harder (probably helped by the strings) and more penetrating shots making them very difficult to defend against.
Rafa is willing to modify his game to adapt to the changes in the way the game is played now so that’s good news. At least he knows the problems and is finding solutions.
I think his serve is affected by his back issue. He may be modifying the way he serves too. He was serving very well at Abu Dhabi so I think its a matter of consistency. However his second serve is really subpar and certainly needs alot of work.
yes hawks. here in england we have endless shots of konta on tv of course and her working with a mind coach who has made her able to play well at the crucial moments makes one long that rafa had gone down that route before.
i emailed chloro after the loss to nando and of course he thinks the same as the both of us.
like me, he’s pretty pessimistic atm…
to amy AT 4:38 PM
https://tenngrand.com/2016/01/25/australian-open-qf-previews-and-picks-williams-vs-sharapova-kerber-vs-azarenka/#comment-81834
It’s true. Picked Rafa in my bracket to the AO final. Was stunned at the early loss. Perplexing turn of events.
amy,
I understand chloro’s pessimism. It’s great to hear how Konta got some help and realize that it’s paid off for her. I am impressed after seeing her win against Zhang. There will be a much bigger test awaiting her against Kerber. But I always enjoy hearing about players who have been able to make changes, whatever they might be. I appreciate their willingness to do whatever it takes to give themselves a better chance to compete well and win.
I think Raonic working with Moya has paid off quite well. He’s playing some outstanding tennis right now. Murray cannot afford to go walkabout or have some lapses, because Raonic will be able to take advantage.
nny, am surprised so many are thinking milos may beat muzza. i know he has been playing very well but andy is a class player with so much variety. his second serve is an achilles heel though..but i wasn’t aware of milos having the return to really do damage (correct me if i’m wrong).
time and time again you see players expanding when they bring in people and get problematic areas fixed. look what happened with stan!! it’s infuriating regarding a certain someone..
to amy AT 6:55 PM,
A certain…(AT 3:40 PM):
https://tenngrand.com/2016/01/25/australian-open-qf-previews-and-picks-williams-vs-sharapova-kerber-vs-azarenka/#comment-81827
Amy,
The ESPN commutes were talking about how raonic changed up his return position. They showed him standing there and then just doing this stutter step to move up quickly to get the jump on his ROS. They showed specific changes that he has made. Now it’s paying off because raonic wants to have a shot to win a slam.
Yes, a certain someone who we all know and love, needs to take note!
I am confident that Murray will come through. He’s got more weapons than monfils.
AT 7:41 PM,
C.Moya gave “a certain someone” advice on Jan.24:
https://tenngrand.com/2016/01/18/australian-open-day-2/comment-page-9/#comment-80506
[augusta08 JANUARY 24, 2016 AT 10:23 AM]
Watch Rafa vs Raonic at Abu Dhabi, Rafa was doing exactly that with his ROS and beat Raonic in straight sets. Perhaps Raonic was taking a leaf out of Rafa’s book and tried that ROS tactic in this Monfils match.
I dont understand the negativity here about one particular player when that player was also making changes to his game to cope with current developments in the sports.
Well I just hope that you’re not comparing exhos with tour tennis.
Don’t you? Or do you.
I talk about Rafa for eg. ….
He had made changes to his game, hitting a flatter more penetrating FH. Watch his Abu Dhabi matches and see all those changes. His serve was great, ROS vs Raonic was very good-varying his return positions to keep Raonic guessing, footwork was excellent and his FH unbelievable. He’s also working on his BHDTL as evident in the IPTL exhos.
Its the problem of bringing all that into his tour matches that he has to overcome. He will get there, as he will be playing on clay soon. He missed clay for some eight months now, time to play on his fav surface and regain his confidence in tour level matches.
no ratcliff it was predictable in many ways. early rounds of slams always make him nervous and after his early defeats in the previous slams he was bound to be under huge pressure. and then nando is a fabio style of player who can hit winners if given the chance by rafa’s passive play.
IMO Raonic played better in that Wawa match but here he played just enough to beat Monfils…
Andy although looking vulnerable out there is tough opponent for Milos…If engaging in rallies like today Milos will stand no chance against Andy…I hope he goes to the net quite often as he did against Wawa and serve better…Andy will return his serves most of the time so Milos will have his hands full…
Not sure yet who to pick…
The only thing i dislike about Stan’s game is his habit of only blocking back serves. There is no intention of attacking off an return. Doing that against a big hitter like raonic, will always make him start at a disadvantage.
Murray is a much better returner and should be able to somewhat neutralize raonic’s 1-2 combo.
Surprise surprise. Raonic wins and plays Murray next. I’m thinking Andy in four but I also believe Raonic can score the upset. If he plays well enough.
ANOTHER GAME FOR MILOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA
Moya like that against Muzza please.
Vamos!
I just watched the Raonic/Monfils match. So it was as myself and others predicted. Monfils did get a set. But Raonic has made changes in his game and the ESPN commies were pointing out the specifics during the match. It’s paying off for him big time, with a spot in the semis.
I expect Murray to play more consistently in the semis. He has a great ROS and excellent defensive skills, so I do expect Murray to prevail. But I think Raonic will make a match of it.
Raonic is a great example of what can happen if you make changes and add someone new to your team. I respect how he’s working to be good enough to contend in slams.