By Erik Gudris/ Sunday, September 29, 2013
Milos Raonic won the big serving battle against Tomas Berdych to claim his second title of the season at the Thailand Open.
Photo Source: AP
Canada's Milos Raonic and his big power game found a home again indoors this week as he served his way to his second title of the season in Bangkok.
Taking on top seed Tomas Berdych in Sunday's finals, both men found themselves in a serving battle early in the opening set. Raonic saved the lone break point against late in the set at 5-6 that was also a set point for Berdych.
Raonic soon forced a tiebreak and took an early mini break lead for 5-2. Berdych pulled to within a point after he hit a well-time backhand lob over Raonic to get to 5-4.
But Raonic responded with a big forehand followed up by yet another massive serve to secure the set 7-6(4).
With momentum on his side, Raonic took control early at 1-0 in the second set when his forehand clipped the baseline that forced a Berdych error. That set up a break point for the Canadian who converted when Berdych netted a backhand.
From there, Raonic just had to keep serving well to maintain his lead. Raonic knocked in 18 aces overall and backed it up with more forehand winners to keep Berdych at bay.
A final forehand winner from Raonic at match point sealed the 7-6(4), 6-3 win.
Bangkok is Raonic's second title of the season having won in San Jose earlier in the year. The win also puts him in tenth place in the race for the ATP World Tour Finals in London.
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