No Chance For Nadal Against Djokovic In Qatar — ATP Betting Preview

On the world No3’s first visit to the lovely city on Australia’s golden east coast, he reached the final of its prestigious tournament, and that proved to be a springboard to one of Federer’s best ever seasons, a 73-12 surge that took him from No8 to within striking distance of No1 by November.

Raonic upset a misfiring Roger Federer on Sunday night, exacting revenge for his defeat to the former world No. 1 in last year’s final with a 6-4 6-4 victory at a packed Pat Rafter Arena.

Immediately, though, Federer felt the full power of the Raonic returns to go 30-30.

With such a huge serve Raonic was always favoured in the tie-breaks and he opened a 5-1 lead on both occasions.

Federer put up a belligerent resistance as the second set reached his conclusion but was undermined by some wild groundstrokes – particularly off his backhand – as Raonic was ultimately able to serve out the match with relatively little fuss.

Thiem, 22, settled into the match in the second set and took the fight to his 34-year-old opponent, but a lapse in the seventh game saw him drop his serve and Federer easily held on to book a place in the final. Federer has won nine of their ten matchups while Raonic’s only victory was in 2014 at the Masters 1000 event in Paris.

Nishikori had defeated Tomic in the very same round of this tournament a year ago, but Tomic exacted some revenge, but the loss doesn’t concern Nishikori all that much.

He accepted the winner’s trophy from 77-year-old Australian great Rod Laver, the only player to complete the calendar grand slam twice. She’ll play two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka, who beat American qualifier Samantha Crawford 6-0, 6-3.

It was the Serbian’s 60th career title and after not dropping a set all week acknowledged that he could not be in finer fettle.

It is Raonic’s eighth ATP title and one of his most important as he seeks to make good on Federer’s recent prediction that he can become a top-five player this year and establish himself as a force to be reckoned with.

“In practice it’s been great – I have been hitting the ball well”.

He’s always been a guy that I enjoyed seeing play. “I try to keep an optimistic approach to every match and every tournament”.

“He’s made a habit of playing at this level”. That is hard to play like this all the time. “I think with experience it’s not going to happen so often anymore”.

Federer cleaned up young Austrian Dominic Thiem en route to the finals, with Raonic beating Australia’s Bernard Tomic in two tight sets to book his own finals berth.

After Novak Djokovic’s impressive start to the 2016 tennis season with Qatar Open title yesterday, many expected Roger Federer to follow the suit in Brisbane and get to a ideal start to the new year.