Bernard Tomic tames Nishikori, in Brisbane Open semifinal

Federer was able to get to advantage on the Raonic serve in the fourth game of set two, but failed to take his chance and was duly broken again at 3-3.

The first set lasted just 22 minutes as a shell-shocked Thiem struggled to match the 17-time Grand Slam champion on Pat Rafter Arena.

Despite both players not managing to give their best, it was Raonic who was pushing Federer with some excellent shot-making.

Dimitrov subsequently withdrew from the doubles semifinals. It was the first time Tomic had taken a set off Nishikori after losing their past two encounters including a quarter-final defeat previous year.

After claiming his eighth ATP World Tour title on Sunday, Raonic expressed satisfaction at laying down a marker ahead of this month’s Australian Open.

The victory will bode well for the Canadian, who will now go into next week’s Australian Open on the back of that momentum.

By holding off Dimitrov, who is 10 years his junior, Federer set up a meeting with 22-year-old Dominic Thiem, the youngest player in the top 20.

“As long as I keep on playing and doing all that stuff it’s not going to go away faster, so I am going to rest up tomorrow”.

As Tomic’s combined head-to-head win-loss record against Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Federer, Wawrinka and Rafael Nadal is 1-16, it is a big help.

The top-seeded Federer had to save two break points in the fifth game of the first set and then faced another two in the ninth, saving the first but putting a forehand into the net on the second.

Milos Raonic was delighted to put last year’s injury troubles behind him with a 6-4 6-4 victory over Roger Federer to win the Brisbane International. They have now won six titles on the trot – the longest winning streak in the category since the 1994 season when Gigi Fernandez and Natasha Zvereva were on a 28 match-winning streak.

Tonight Raonic meets local favorite Bernard Tomic in the semifinal, where I think we will see a tightly contested match that may very well be decided by a few tiebreakers. If he can somehow find strength within himself to really push himself physically he could definitely hold a place regularly in the top 10.

“When you feel it in the most important moments, every time I had a chance to create some better plays, you know, it just wouldn’t be happening”.

Raonic pushed Federer in three close sets in 2015 and although he said he was playing better now than 12 months ago, he conceded facing the Swiss great was always hard.

“To step on the court and play a full match with no pain, play three matches three days in a row, was a success for me even though I lost the last match”, said Bouchard, now ranked 49th in the world after peaking at five in October 2014.