World Tour Finals: Andy Murray set for crunch Milos Raonic match
- Published
Andy Murray is likely to need to win both his remaining group matches to progress
ATP World Tour Finals, O2 Arena, London, 9-16 November |
Coverage: Murray v Raonic - live text on BBC Sport website from 19:45 GMT & radio commentary on 5 live sports extra from 20:00. Afternoon sessions (14:00 GMT) and first semi-final (14:00 GMT) on BBC Two & BBC website, final on BBC Three & BBC website (19:00 GMT) |
Andy Murray takes on Milos Raonic on Tuesday evening knowing his ATP World Tour Finals hopes are on the line.
The Briton lost his opening Group B match in straight sets against Kei Nishikori and now faces a battle to qualify for the semi-finals.
Andy Murray beaten by Kei Nishikori in ATP World Tour Finals
Roger Federer beat Nishikori 6-3 6-2 in Tuesday's afternoon session in London.
That leaves Murray knowing defeat against Raonic would see him eliminated before his final group match against Federer on Thursday.
"I'm going to have to win those two matches and try to win them well if I can," Murray said. "It's going to be tough and I'll need to play better than I did on Sunday.
"But that's the nice thing about the round-robin - if this was another tournament I'd be going home, whereas here at least I have another opportunity to try and get back in the tournament."
Group B standings | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Player | Matches (W-L) | Sets (W-L) | Games (W-L) |
Roger Federer (Sui) | 1-0 | 2-0 | 13-7 |
Kei Nishikori (Jpn) | 1-0 | 2-0 | 12-8 |
Andy Murray (GBR) | 0-1 | 0-2 | 8-12 |
Milos Raonic (Can) | 0-1 | 0-2 | 7-13 |
Two players will progress from the group, with Murray up against Federer in his third match on Thursday, and the Swiss six-time champion looked in good form when he beat Raonic on Sunday.
The 23-year-old Canadian is making his debut at the season finale but had expected more of himself having beaten Federer for the first time in Paris two weeks ago.
"I get pretty angry when I lose, so I'm going to have to learn how to slap myself out of it," he said.
In the summer, Raonic became the first Canadian man to reach the semi-finals of Wimbledon
Raonic rose from 11th in the world at the start of 2014 to a high of sixth off the back of his Wimbledon semi-final run in July, and held his position in the top eight during recent weeks to secure his place in London.
He also has a 3-1 winning record against Murray, including victory in their only meeting this year in Indian Wells.
GB doubles player and BBC Sport analyst Colin Fleming: |
|---|
"There's no doubt Raonic's main weapon is his serve and Andy needs to neutralise that, but he needs to take care of his own serve too. If Raonic is holding easily and starting to make inroads into Andy's service games, that puts a lot of pressure on. The longer the rally goes, the more of a favourite Andy is to win it. Raonic is a big, athletic guy in a straight line or jumping to get a ball, but Andy's got the skills and the variety to make him turn quickly, go in behind him and really exploit that. He needs to make Raonic hit uncomfortable shots, low backhands, and move him around." |
"It's a completely different match," Raonic said. "Things are going to be quite different than the first match [in London].
"We both have more of an idea what we need to do different for the next round.
"It's going to be about who adjusts better, who can play better come Tuesday night."
- Published11 November 2014
- Published10 November 2014
- Published10 November 2014
- Published9 November 2014
- Published9 November 2014
- Published8 November 2014
- Published8 November 2014
- Published7 November 2014
- Published7 November 2014
- Published3 November 2014
- Published26 October 2014
- Published8 November 2016
- Published17 June 2019
