Roger Federer is one win away from his first Brisbane title. Standing in the way of the 2014 runner-up is Milos Raonic, who will be looking for a second career victory over the Swiss when they take the court on Sunday.
Roger Federer and Milos Raonic will be squaring off for the ninth time in their careers and for the fifth time since the start of last summer when they battle for the Brisbane International title on Sunday.
Federer is dominating the head-to-head series 7-1, including 4-1 on hard courts. Their most significant encounter came at Wimbledon in 2014, when Federer cruised through a semifinal showdown 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. The 17-time Grand Slam champion followed that up with an easy win over Raonic in Cincinnati. Raonic finally earned his first victory at Federer’s expense via a 7-6(5), 7-5 decision in Paris that helped him qualify for the World Tour Finals, where Federer restored order to the series with a dominant 6-1, 7-6(0) performance during round-robin action in London.
This week has not been an atypical one for Federer, who got a wakeup call early and then kicked things into high gear. The top seed trailed John Millman 6-4, 3-1 in his opener before overcoming the Australian wild card in three sets. He then crushed James Duckworth 6-0, 6-1 and Grigor Dimitrov 6-2. 6-2. This is only Federer’s third appearance in Brisbane, where he finished runner-up to Lleyton Hewitt last season.
“Against Lleyton, when I had to go into the grind, I just didn’t have any more rhythm,” the world No. 2 reflected. “I think it’s going to be different this time around. I’m fresh for the finals; probably have a slight advantage over Milos in that regard.”
Raonic has required a pair of final-set tiebreakers to advance, although that is not a situation that has ever made him uncomfortable. After blasting past Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3, 6-4, the eighth-ranked Canadian edged Sam Groth 7-6(5), 3-6, 7-6(2) in the quarters and took out Kei Nishikori 6-7(4), 7-6(4), 7-6(4) on Saturday. Raonic fired 34 aces against Nishikori while serving at 69 percent. Those numbers suggest the underdog will make this one competitive, but Federer is in outstanding form right now and for the most part has Raonic’s number.
Pick: Federer in 2 with one tiebreaker
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