Thaindian News

Chennai, Jan 8 (IANS) Milos Raonic did not shy away from saying that the serve was an important, if not the most critical, component of his game and attributed his success against Janko Tipsarevic in the singles final of the Aircel Chennai Open here Sunday to this facet of his tennis.”I couldn’t have asked for a better tennis and serve from myself. I served close to 10 on a scale of 1 to 10 tonight, but more importantly, I served better than my opponent,” said the 21-year old Canadian after winning his second tour title defeating World No.9 and top seed Tipsarevic 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4) in the final.

In the process, Raonic became the first player to win an ATP World Tour title without dropping serve since Roger Federer at the 2008 Gerry Weber Open in Halle (49 games). Raonic is now 5-8 life-time against Top 10 opponents.

“It is my second (tournament) win and it is an awesome feeling. I give myself a big headache because in the three finals, I played seven tie-breaks out of the eight sets. So, it is a great feeling to be here and to be talking in such a great mood and to be having this experience and to be in front of the crowd,” said Raonic referring to the two other finals he had appeared in last year when he jumped from 152 to 31 that won him the ATP’s Newcomer of the Year award.

Raonic, who is likely to move up from his current ranking of 31, beat Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5) in the final at San Jose and lost to American Andy Roddick 6/7 (7), 7-6 (11), 7-5, at Halle, last year.

Looking back at his performance in the Chennai Open, Raonic said he deemed it an “honour” to have beaten two top-10 players in Tipsarevic and Nicolas Almagro (10).

“It is an honour to come out on top and beat the likes of Tipsarevic and Almagro. Obviously, I will be going into Australian Open high on confidence,” said Raonic, who made it to the fourth round in Melbourne last year as a qualifier.

“I think I created a lot of opportunities today against Janko. Lot of opportunities in fact…once in each set. In the first set, he took away the opportunity from me. I had two chances in the second set and third too. So, at the end of the day I could not have asked for better tennis for myself. Better tennis from the baseline,” said Raonic.

He attributed his big serves that are not just about power but also precision, to a lot of practice. “Typically, I practice my serve for about 40 minutes daily. My first job is to take care of my serve and when I am doing that, it is a great feeling,” said Raonic who on Sunday clocked a fastest of 228 kmph besides 36 aces.