By Erik Gudris | Friday, August 19, 2016

 

Milos Raonic never faced a break point against Dominic Thiem in reaching the Cincinnati semifinals.

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No. 4 seed Milos Raonic finds himself edging closing to perhaps winning his first ever ATP 1000 title at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.

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While Raonic could be the first player born in the 1990s to win a Masters 1000 title, he doesn’t dwell on the age of any of his opponents.

"I'm not competing with the guys around my age or younger than me,” Raonic said. “I’m competing with the best players. That's pretty much where the focus is.”

The recent Wimbledon finalist faced off in an intriguing first time meeting against No. 8 seed Dominic Thiem in Friday’s quarterfinals. But any intrigue quickly ended with Raonic taking and keeping control of the match.

Though never having player Thiem before, Raonic was pleased how he prepared before the match.

"Yeah, I definitely executed well. I did quite a few things well today. I practiced with him early this week. I've practiced with him many times, so to some extent I have an understanding of his game, like he has of mine. But it's a little different come match time, so I did a little bit of studying. I spoke with my coaches. Just things I may expect to see out there, and I feel like I took that all in and adapted well."

Both players remained on serve throughout the first set until Raonic took the initiative. Holding a break point, Raonic hit a running forehand pass to leap ahead 5-2.

A fine lunge backhand volley from Raonic later on set point secured the set 6-3.

For Thiem’s part, the young Austrian had trouble all day reading or even getting a racquet on Raonic’s big serve. Thiem, winner of four titles this season, dug out of early break point trouble by coming to net a forcing a Raonic passing shot error.

Thiem began finding more rhythm in his groundstrokes and enjoyed success with his kick serve. Thiem, however, still had no answers for Raonic’s serve.

But Raonic made his move midway through the set again. Thiem missed a makable forehand to give Raonic break point. Thiem then struck a backhand long to hand Raonic the lead for 4-3.

From there, Raonic put on a serving clinic as pounded in huge serves down the stretch. The Canadian never faced a break point all match including in the final game. Raonic struck three aces in row, including one at match point at 140 MPH, to secure the 6-3, 6-4 win.

Raonic may next face Andy Murray who deafeated him in the Wimbledon final. Raonic himself is not dwelling on what might have been but instead on what he learned from that match.

"What happened a month ago is I could have had thoughts about what happened three weeks before that. Those kind of things are very short-lived in tennis. The tennis world moves on very quickly,” Raonic said. “Things go on and you forget about those things. Obviously going to be some things I am going to want to do better than I did about a month ago, but there are going to be some things I'm going to take away and try to execute a little bit better and use that I did well."