Milos Raonic: edges Berdych to meet Djokovic

Milos Raonic reached the final of the Paris Masters on Saturday with a bruising 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 win over Tomas Berdych. And his reward for that will be another bruising encounter, with world number Novak Djokovic, who subdued Japan’s rising star, Kei Nishikori.

Djokovic beat Nishikori 6-2, 6-3, a revenge of sorts against the Asian star, who eliminated him at the US Open semi-final in September.

For Raonic, it is just the second time that the fast-rising Canadian has made it through to the final of a Masters Series event, losing in straight sets to Rafael Nadal on home soil at Montreal in September, 2013. He has another mountain to climb in Djokovic who had beaten him twice this year in Rome Masters and the French Open.

Berdych’s loss to Raonic means the Czech’s hopes of winning the Paris title for the second time after 2005 went begging. To date that is his only Masters Series title having lost in two finals since then.

Both men, however, were already assured of playing in the ATP World Tour Finals in London in just nine days time after their quarter-final wins on Friday.

There they will join Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Stan Wawrinka, Andy Murray, Marin Cilic and Kei Nishikori

“It’s amazing, all the things that are happening,” said 23-year-old Raonic.

“The final tomorrow, it’s just about really buckling down, hoping to play another great match, and making the most of the opportunity ahead.

“I know the challenge that will be in front of me, and I’m going to have to play very good tennis. I feel like I’m ready for that.”

With home heroes Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils already eliminated and crowd favourite Federer sent packing on Friday by Raonic, the atmosphere was distinctly subdued inside the Bercy Indoor Arena for the first of the semi-finals.

As expected the serving was ferocious from two of the tallest players in the sport at 1.96m for the Canadian and 1.90 for the Czech.

Raonic was the first to strike with a break of serve in the fourth game, getting the better of Berdych in a punishing 25-shot rally to take a 3-1 lead.

That was enough to ensure him a one set advantage with Berdych failing to muster a single break point against the Canadian.

The second set, however, saw Raonic suffer a lapse of concentration in the second game. A double fault gave Berdych his first two break points and he converted the second of these when Raonic netted a defensive backhand slice.

Once again the single early break of serve proved to be crucial with Berdych having little difficulty in holding onto his own serve after that.

The decider was totally dominated by serve with the first 11 games providing not a single break point and a tie-break looking inevitable.

But all that changed in the 12th game when a rash of errors from an edgy Berdych brought up match point for Raonic and the Canadian clinched victory with a big forehand, drawing a netted backhand from the Czech who smashed his racquet off the ground in frustration.

After calming down, Berdych had words of praise for the man he had just lost to.

“I think it’s really a guy that we all need to watch for in the future. He’s just slowly proving that he’s going to be really a tough player with all the weapons that he has,” he said.