‘Incredibly special’: Raonic takes down world No. 10 Tiafoe in return to NBO - Sportsnet.ca

TORONTO — Given all he’s been through, one would understand if Milos Raonic arrived at the National Bank Open with a just-happy-to-be-here mentality. 

After all, the 32-year-old Canadian has barely touched the court in the past couple years thanks largely to an Achilles tendon issue and hasn’t played in his hometown tournament since 2018.  

But whether watching his play or his uncharacteristic reaction to a set-deciding call that did not go his way, there was only one conclusion to draw: Raonic is in Toronto to fight. 

A wild-card entry at the NBO, Raonic shook off a heartbreaking first-set tiebreaker loss to beat world No. 10-ranked Frances Tiafoe 6-7, 7-6, 6-3. 

This was his fifth match since returning to action in June and although he felt his game was coming around, there’s a big difference between solid training sessions and going toe-to-toe with one of the world’s finest players. 

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“The thing I’ve always said is, it doesn’t matter how much you do the right things, you never know when things kind of click and when things come together for you,” said Raonic, who grew up just down the road in Thornhill. “For me, it’s incredibly special for it to be here.”  

Of course, it was also special for his parents and while Raonic said he was touched by the videos he saw of them cheering, things were still subdued between them after the match.  

“You know, Eastern European parents, not always the best at expressing emotions,” Raonic said with a little grin. “So I’m sure there will be one moment when we talk about it. Today wasn’t that day.” 

Maybe they were all just too exhausted from a match that lasted 2:44. The first set alone took more than an hour after Tiafoe won a marathon tiebreaker that ended on a point granted to the American following an extended consultation with multiple officials. While Tiafoe returned Raonic’s offer, the former touched the net after sending the ball back over to Raonic’s side. However, because he contacted the net between the singles stick and the fence post, the point remained Tiafoe’s due to the fact that portion of the net is considered a permanent fixture of the playing surface.  

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The explanation may have satisfied rulebook nerds, but it was certainly an awful way for the normally composed Raonic to lose such a hard-fought set and he immediately smashed his courtside bench with the same ferocity he put into his 220-kph serves. 

Even after he’d come back to win the match, one thing was top of mind for Raonic as he spoke to Sportsnet’s Arash Madani on centre court. 

“First thing I want to do is check the rule book,” he said to an adoring crowd at Sobeys Stadium 

The first thing Canadian tennis fans likely thought of doing on this thrilling opening night at the NBO was checking the calendar to make sure we weren’t back in 2016, when Raonic was one of the top players on tour and reached the Wimbledon final. 

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Early on, it certainly appeared Raonic’s homecoming — one many have wondered will double as a farewell — would play out as expected against a very tough opponent. Tiafoe — a two-time tournament winner this year and 2022 U.S. Open semifinalist — immediately broke Raonic’s serve in the match’s first game. But with Tiafoe up 5-4 and trying to serve out the set, Raonic ripped off seven straight points to completely change the feel inside the stadium. Suddenly, full-throated “Let’s go Mi-los!” chants were reverberating around the court. 

“I’m not necessarily the best player at involving the crowd, I just kind of keep my head down and do my thing,” Raonic said. “And I think that got everybody riled up, everybody excited, everybody more into the match and it just gave me some momentum and some force going forward.” 

There were certainly no shortage of gasps and claps during a 26-point tiebreaker that lasted over 20 minutes and ended on the somewhat confusing play that angered both Raonic and the crowd. 

However, Raonic clawed back to win the second set on a 6-4 tiebreaker. In the third set, the Canadian broke Tiafoe’s serve in the second game and dug deep to fight off a number of break points to claim a 6-3 victory. On match point, Raonic faulted on his first serve before cracking his 37^th ace of the night — a number that fell one shy of his career-best 38 in a best-of-three contest. 

“I was quite aware the gameplan would be just to find a way to take care of my serve,” Raonic said. 

Even before Raonic electrified the crowd, the vibes in Toronto were definitely positive. Just before he took the court, Canada’s 2022 Davis Cup-winning team was honoured. That crew included Felix Auger-Aliassime, who will play his first NBO match Tuesday night, as well as Denis Shapovalov, who is not taking part in the tournament because of an injury but wanted to be here to receive his championship ring and high-five the guys he made history with when they became the first Canadian squad to claim the Davis Cup nine months ago in Spain. 

Alexis Galarneau, another member of that Davis Cup team, gave Canadian tennis fans a reason to get excited earlier in the day. Galarneau, ranked 192^nd in the world and still in search of his first ATP Tour victory, pushed world No. 22 Francisco Cerlundolo to three sets, falling 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 to the Argentine on centre court. Galarneau actually held a 3-0 advantage in the decisive set before Cerlundolo charged back. Still, there were plenty of smiles from the Laval, Que., native after the match. “Starting from the second set, I think I was really getting much better (and also) feeling better on court,” the 24-year-old said. “And, yeah, I think I met my (pre-tournament) expectation. Obviously, I would have liked to win today, but I’m going to learn a lot from this.” 

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Galarneau, who won an ATP Challenger event a couple weeks ago in Granby, Que. and was granted wild-card entry at the NBO, said it was a confidence boost to compete so hard against a quality player like Cerlundolo. “I knew I had the level, but to bring it again on centre court in front of the Canadian crowd, I can be proud of that. The next step is to take out a top 30 player. So hopefully next year or even this year, I will get more chances at top players like this.”  

As for Raonic, his victory over Tiafoe was his first against a top-10 player since 2020. Now he’s on to the second round of the NBO, hoping to catch lighting in a bottle versus Japanese qualifier Taro Daniel. 

“Good play and good fortune kind of got me through,” Raonic said of his win. 

A little more of both could make for a special week. 

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2023-08-08 04:28:00Z
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