Rafael Nadal vs. Milos Raonic: Score and Recap from 2014 Miami Masters

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at Internationaled.org

Published: March 28, 2014

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Rafael Nadal withstood an early onslaught to dispatch Milos Raonic, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, Thursday night in the quarterfinals of the 2014 Sony Open:



It sounds cliche, but the best players know how to find a way to win even when they aren't at their best. In Miami, you saw exactly why Nadal is the best men's player in the world at the moment. Between the windy conditions and a tough opponent, Rafa had his hands full, recovering from a poor first set to earn the victory.

This loss will sting for Raonic, as he's now 0-11 against top-five players outside of Andy Murray, per Ben Rothenberg of The New York Times:



The Canadian missed a major opportunity on Thursday night, as he let the match slip between the first and second sets.

In the first, he was confident, almost to the extent of being cocksure. Rather than trying to outrun Nadal or beat him from the baseline, he opted to bludgeon him with a fantastic first serve.

Raonic won an impressive 91 percent of his first-service points and recorded five aces. Rafa was powerless to offer any resistance when on the return.

As Rothenberg noted, all Raonic needed was a tiny window with which to break Nadal, and he'd take the set:



That first set was indeed a rare sight. In Raonic's four previous meetings with Nadal, he had failed to win a single set, per Sports Illustrated's Beyond the Baseline:



There was a warning sign, however, as Raonic lost 11 of his 14 second-service points in that first set. You can't perform that poorly and expect to beat a player of Nadal's quality. Something needed to change.

The tweak Raonic made was to play much more conservatively in the second. Rather than unleashing on his first serve, he took some speed off in order to get it in and avoid having Nadal tee off on his second serve.

The strategy didn't exactly work out too well, as Rao...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis

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