Milos Raonic will be gunning for his second title in two straight weeks when he goes up against Juan Martin Del Potro on Sunday in Tokyo. Both players are looking to hoist a third winner’s trophy this year.
(1) Juan Martin Del Potro vs. (3) Milos Raonic
Del Potro and Raonic will be squaring off for the second time in their careers when they battle for the Rakuten Japan Open title on Sunday. Their only previous encounter came this summer on the hard courts of Montreal, where Raonic won a controversial third-round showdown 7-5, 6-4. The Canadian touched the net on a crucial point late in the second set but it went uncalled–by the umpire and by Raonic–and he won the match just few minutes later.
Fast forward two months and Raonic is playing the best tennis of his 2013 campaign–even better than the form that carried him to a runner-up finish in Montreal. The world No. 11 triumphed last week in Bangkok and he has improved his record for the year to 41-17 thanks to straight-set Tokyo wins over Go Soeda, Jeremy Chardy, Lukas Lacko, and Ivan Dodig.
Like Raonic, Del Potro went through the hard-court summer with some stellar play (title in Washington, D.C. and semifinal in Cincinnati) interspersed with disappointment. The seventh-ranked Argentine is back in action for the first time since the U.S. Open and clearly benefiting from a month of rest. He booked his spot in this final with defeats of Marcos Baghdatis, Carlos Berlocq, Alexandr Dolgopolov, and Nicolas Almagro.
Del Potro has an obvious edge from the baseline and he will be eager to avenge what transpired at the Rogers Cup, but Raonic’s serve is the x-factor. Tokyo’s third seed has fired at least 11 aces and won at least 87 percent of his first-serve points in all four of his matches. He has not been broken this week and has faced only one break point. One more similar service performance will land Raonic another title.
Pick: Raonic in 3
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