Raonic ousts Murray in Japan

Raonic had to battle hard against Murray

Milos Raonic gained some revenge for his US Open exit to Andy Murray by defeating the British No.1 in the semi-finals of the Japan Open.

The Canadian saved two match points and came back from a 4-1 deficit in the final set to take a 6-3, 6-7 (7-5), 7-6 (7-4) victory.

The 23-year-old is looking for his third title of the year and is hoping to earn enough ranking points to make the ATP World Tour Finals in London in November.

The eighth seed once again proved his battling qualities a day after saving match points against Janko Tipsarevic in the previous round. It did look like the Canadian would coast through, however, after breaking Murray in the match’s opening game and then dominating on serve.

He faced just one break point in the opening two sets but couldn’t hold off the Murray attack in the second set tie-break. That looked to have knocked the big Canadian off stride and he was quickly broken in the deciding set as Murray jumped out to a 4-1 lead.

However, he battled back to level up the match, although serving at 5-6 he nearly let the good work go to waste as Murray earned two match points that he failed to convert.

The defeat is Murray’s first since winning the US Open and admitted Raonic’s serve was a tough weapon.

"He played well behind his first serve. "That made it tough for me. There was always going to be a bit of residue from the last few months,” Murray said.

Raonic will now play home-crowd favourite Kei Nishikori after the Japanese player beat Marcos Baghdatis 6-2, 6-2.

Nishikori won 77% of his service points and didn’t face a single break point en route to his first final of 2012.

Philip Wicinski

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