Raonic is Last King of San Jose

News

Scores

Rankings

Lucky Letcord Podcast

Shop

Pro Gear

Pickleball

Gear Sale

Add to Flipboard Magazine.

Raonic is Last King of San Jose

By Chris Oddo

(February 17, 2013) -- Milos Raonic is going to miss the ATP’s long running San Jose event, perhaps more than anyone else.

The 22-year-old became the first player in the Open Era to win three successive titles in San Jose on the last year of the event’s 125-year history with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Tommy Haas.

Raonic launched 19 aces and did not face a break point against Haas, ending a remarkable three-year run that saw him hold serve in 122 of 124 games. The top-seeded Canadian saved his best serving performance for last in the site of his maiden ATP title in 2011, as he held in all 39 games he served this week, and faced only one break point in the process.

The World No. 13 concludes his reign of terror in the San Francisco Bay Area with a squeaky clean 12-0 lifetime record in San Jose.

Raonic's dominant form on Sunday put an end to an inspiring run by a 34-year-old Tommy Haas, who proved once again that he’s far from done when it comes to making an impact on the ATP Tour.

Haas was bidding to become the oldest titlist in San Jose since Roy Emerson (36) in 1973, but nonetheless his first career final at the event, and 25th overall, will net him a place in the top 20 when the ATP’s rankings come out on Monday.

Both players came in red-hot from the service line,as neither had dropped serve all week, but Haas’s level dropped a bit on Sunday. He was broken in the third game of the match, and Raonic refused to give the German a shot at redemption as he hammered 11 aces and only lost two first-serve points in his five service games in the set.

In the second set, it looked as though Haas might be able to at least force a tiebreaker, but when he dropped serve at 3-3 to hand Raonic the lead things began to look truly bleak.

Raonic broke in the ninth game to lock up the victory.

His fourth career title in his seventh final was Raonic’s first appearance as the top seed. Having never lost a set at an event that has been won by such luminaries as Pete Sampras, John McEnroe and Tony Trabert, Raonic will go down in history as one of the greatest performers in the storied history of the event.

(Photo Credit: AP)