Raonic Conquers Monfils, Murray outruns Ferrer to semifinal spot

If there were a player to “contain” Milos Raonic’s booming serve, Frenchman Gail Monfills would be the one. The 23rd seeded Frenchman is endowed with long legs and a broad horizontal reach on account of his long arms. Additionally, he has a deft touch, powerful serve and a mixture of shots.

However, the awesome firepower of the Canadian determined the outcome of their quarterfinal clash yesterday at the 2016 Australian Open.

When serving at crucial points, Raonic delivered blistering serves at speeds consistently above 220 kph and aimed directly into Monfil’s lanky frame. The Frenchman registered lower service speeds, but balanced by excellent placement and deep groundstrokes.

However, he made many double-faults, two of which gave the games to his opponent.

One break earned by Raonic in the sixth game of the first set put him ahead four games to two and he never looked back as both players held on to their serves. It was the reverse in the second set, with the Frenchman earning the only break to claim the set 6/3.

The crowd favourite received a long applause from the fans, who wanted a full stretch of the highly entertaining contest by the wily Frenchman. Unfortunately, he dropped his serve in the second game and Raonic held to go up three games to love.

Although Monfils held to reduce the tally, Raonic was always three games ahead as he held his service games.

In that arithmetic progression, he was up five games to three and serving for the set. Down 0-15, he rained down an ace serve clocked at 223 kph to level and another at 225 kph that drew a weak lob that he smashed away to win the set 6/3.

Serving first in the opening game of the fourth set, Monfils raised the speed of his serves and won the game without conceding a point.., and Raonic also held the second game during which he handed a broken ball to the umpire.

Serving in the fifth game, Monfils was down 15-30, leveled to 30-all and had game point that he lost. At deuce, he was passed in an unsuccessful foray to the net and then double faulted to hand the Canadian the decisive break.

In the eighth game, Monfils delivered three aces in a row to reduce the tally to four games to five. Serving for the match, Raonic hammered a 223 kph ace straight at Monfils, who staggered as he dodged.

On the first match point, he rained down (from his usual high toss) an ace of 226 kph to win the set 6-4 and the match 6/3; 3/6; 6/3; 6/4.

On Friday, Raonic will face second-seeded Andy Murray, who defeated hard-fighting David Ferrer of Spain, 6/3; 7/6(5); 2/6; 6/3.

The first men’s semifinal will come up today between Novak Djokovic of Serbia and Roger Federer of Switzerland.

In the women’s draw, British Johanna Konta (who defeated Venus Williams in the first round) ended the Cinderella run of Chinese debutante, Shiuan Zhang, who sent out the second-seeded Simona Halep of Romania also in the first round.

Konta won in straight sets 6/3; 7/5. In the other match, German seventh seed, Angelique Kerber defeated Victoria Azarenka of Belarus 6/3; 7/5.

The women’s semifinals will be played today between Serena Williams of the USA and Agnieszka Radwanka of Poland; while Angelique Kerber will square off with Johanna Konta.