SHARKSPAGE

20-year old Milos Raonic upset top seeded Fernando Verdasco at SAP Open, first Canadian ATP winner in 15 years

20-YR OLD MILOS RAONIC EARNED 1ST CAREER WIN IN SAN JOSE

FERNANDO VERDASCO HAD NOT LOST A SET IN RUN TO FINAL

RAONIC HANDED MAPLE SYRUP, SHARKS JERSEY BY TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR BILL RAPP

If a new era of Canadian tennis is going to start with 20-year old Milos Raonic’s first career win, it is fitting that it took place on the center court of a hockey arena. The unseeded Raonic downed defending champion Fernando Verdasco in straight sets 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5) to become the first Canadian to win an ATP event since 1995.

“It’s an amazing feeling, I have done a big thing for myself and for everybody in Canada as a tennis fan,” Raonic told SAPOpentennis.com. “I hope the sport can grow, and I hope I can keep doing this.”

Raonic overcame a formidable opponent, one who had not lost a set en route to the final, with a pair of tightly contested tiebreakers. Up 6-2 in the first tiebreak, Verdasco sent a forehand into the net. The Canadian capitalized on the mistake with a pair of service winners, and then a heavy down the line backhand gave him set point. Raonic let out a scream as he earned the first set on his serve.

“I think that there was just one mistake with my forehand. All the other points I played agressive,” Verdasco told the media of the first set tiebreak. “I don’t think I did anything bad. Maybe I didn’t go for one serve 140… He played good and got all the returns in.”

“It comes down to who gets it that day,” Raonic said of the first set tiebreak. “It comes down to a few points, and I was there for that. I used up my luck today.”

In a reference to Pete Sampras, one local commentator described the serve-and-volley as an “antiquated” style of play. Someone forgot to tell Raonic as he served and volleyed to start the first set tiebreak, and to start the second set. While he noted his serve on Sunday was not the best as it had been all week, he routinley hit 140 and 141 on the speed gun in the first set.

Verdasco began to press each Raonic service game in the second set, not content to wait until a tiebreak to get a decisive point. The fluid and mobile Spaniard will still caught flat flooted by the thumping serve, which hit 143mph in his first service game of the second set.

“I play well when he let me play with his serve,” Verdasco said. “There must be another league for players like him and Karlovic, because it is another sport. When you serve all the time at 140, and every time there’s a chance it’s going to hit the line, you can not even play tennis. It is tough mentally,” Verdasco said.

Even tougher when a 143mph serve is followed by a sliced 99mph serve out wide. It was like pouring salt into the wound, and you could see the mentally tough Verdasco sag briefly on the court. Raonic swelled in the other direction. “In the second set I was more confident, by then it came out the way I wanted it to,” he said.

The second set also came down to a tight tiebreaker, again with Raonic coming out on top. Verdasco fought off two match points, but on the championship point a fan in the stands yelled out just prior to Raonic’s serve. Stunned, Verdasco hit a weak forehand into the net. Both players paused after the point to see what the chair umpire would do, but he let the point stand. Raonic celebrated his first tournament win.

One veteran tennis journalist noted that the young Canadian’s first victory came after playing tournaments on 4 continents already at this early point in the season. Last year Raonic was ranked #360 on the ATP Tour, but with a tournament win in San Jose and 3 match wins at the Australian Open (including an upset of #10 Mikhail Youzhny), the young Canadian could find himself at #59 next week. In an odd scheduling quirk, at that tournament in Memphis he will face Fernando Verdasco in the first round. “I hope he has more double faults,” Verdasco said.

Verdasco was a fan favorite in San Jose, and after his first singles match on Wednesday he noted the number of spanish speaking fans that traveled to HP Pavilion and said they made him feel at home. He also noted, prior to the finals, that not losing a set helped his confidence and helped him have fun on the court.

The incident with a fan screaming out on championship point angered Verdasco. “What I hope is that there is no people like that in the stadium,” he said. “If they don’t know the rules in tennis, they can go watch soccer.” In the age of grunts and screams, it is a little surprising that tennis etiquette is still taught to the majority of young players starting out on public or private courts. That etiquette was broken by a fan at the worst possible point in the match, but Verdasco did not object.

“I do not know the rules, but for me it was a big distraction,” Verdasco said. “One guy screaming when all the stadium is in silence. It’s already tough to return a serve 135 miles per hour. With championship points against you, even more if somebody’s screaming. I was hoping that the chair umpire would at least do something, or say something.” After the initial pause and handshake across the net, Verdasco sat motionless in his chair courtside. Fans inside HP Pavilion tried to rally Verdasco with applause earlier in the second set, and at the start of the second set tiebreak, but the lone fan on championship point left a bad aftertaste to a quality match.

Along with the tournament payout of $92,000 (U.S.), Raonic was also jokingly given a bottle of Canadian maple syrup by SAP Open tournament director Bill Rapp. Raonic made an offhand remark about wanting the syrup before the tournament began, and after he won Rapp gave it to him. The young Canadian was also given a San Jose Sharks jersey.

In the doubles final earlier Sunday, unseeded Americans Rajeev Ram and Scott Lipsky upset Matisse-Falla in a thrilling final 6-4, 4-6, 10-8. “We were cruising for while and it got out of hand, it got a little hairy,” Ram told SAPOpentennis.com. “We came this far with our game, and we stuck with it.” CSN Bay Area will rebroadcast the first singles semifinal on Tuesday, February 15 at 3:00pm, and the singles final on Wednesday, February 16 at 3:00pm. A Sharkspage photo gallery from the Men’s Singles Final is available here. Video highlights from Sunday are available at SAPOpentennis.com.

[Update] Raonic downs Verdasco – TSN.

The Bay Area has been kind to Canadian tennis players in recent years. Aleksandra Wozniak ended a 20-year title drought for Canadian women when she won at Stanford in 2008. And now Raonic ended the drought on the men’s side in the same building where fellow Canadians Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Dany Heatley and Dan Boyle star for the San Jose Sharks.

[Update2] Milos Raonic captures SAP Open title – San Jose Mercury News.

[Update3] Oh, Canada!: Raonic Claims First ATP Crown, Fast-Rising, Fast-Serving Canadian Dethrones Defending SAP Champ Verdasco – Inside Tennis Magazine.