By Canadian Press

Djokovic outlasts Raonic in quarters at Western and Southern Open

Aug 17, 2018 | 8:50 PM

CINCINNATI — Milos Raonic still has no answer for Novak Djokovic.

Despite pushing the 13-time Grand Slam winner to three sets, the native of Thornhill, Ont., couldn’t solve Djokovic, losing 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 in the quarterfinal of the Western and Southern Open on Friday.

With the loss, Raonic, the 29th-ranked player in the world, dropped to 0-9 in his career against the Serbian.

“In the end, very few points, really, decided winner,” said Djokovic.

“Until the last shot I didn’t know whether (I was) going to win it or not. Just very close matches. And I was fighting. I was giving my best. I really liked, you know, the composure, so to say, the focus that I had all the way through.”

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Both players held serve until the seventh game of the first set, when Raonic took a 4-3 lead. A clearly frustrated Djokovic destroyed his racket in frustration when he hit wide facing game point.

But up 5-4, Raonic was broken while serving for the set, and broken again in the deciding game to give the Djokovic the early advantage. The 10th seed fell awkwardly on the last point of the set and appeared to roll an ankle, but didn’t seem to suffer any mobility issues throughout the rest of the match.

Djokovic admitted after the match that he is “very expressive of emotions,” which sometimes works in his favour, and sometimes doesn’t.

“I never felt, so to say, embarrassed to say that I’m someone who makes mistakes, and I’m not proud when I break the racquet, especially I know there are kids around and watching, and I’m not proud of it, but sometimes it’s just — it’s too strong, and you let it out,” he said.

“Important thing is to find a way to regroup and bounce back and try to refocus again.”

Raonic got an early break in the second and held serve for the win to take just his second set ever against Djokovic, and first on hardcourt in 11 tries.

In the third set, Raonic and Djokovic exchanged early breaks until Djokovic pulled away.

The 27-year-old Canadian went up love-30 in the final game, but Djokovic strung together four consecutive points to take the match.

Raonic struggled with consistency on his serve throughout, launching 21 aces to Djokovic’s five, but also racking up nine double faults.

Djokovic looked fatigued at times after completing a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over defending champion Grigor Dimitrov earlier Friday. The match was suspended during the third round Thursday after significant rain delays greatly affected the day’s schedule of matches.

However, he said staring down Raonic’s booming serve got him amped up.

“To go back on the court again against Raonic, who was serving 140-plus miles from the first game, that got me going for sure from the beginning,” said Djokovic.

The Canadian Press