Tennis: Raonic stuns Nadal to reach Indian Wells semis
Raonic saved three match points en route to earning his hard-fought win.
INDIAN WELLS (AFP) - Sixth seeded Canadian Milos Raonic blasted 19 aces and hammered a series of thunderous forehands to upset world No. 3 Rafa Nadal and reach the semi-finals of the Indian Wells ATP Masters.
Raonic saved three match points en route to earning his hard-fought win with a 4-6, 7-6 (12/10), 7-5 marathon win that lasted three hours on the Tennis Garden s centre court.
Raonic will face second seed Roger Federer for a place in the final after the Swiss cruised past Czech Tomas Berdych in straight sets.
The 24-year-old s shocking win over three-time Indian Wells champ Nadal spoils what could have been a semi-final lineup that featured each of the top four seeds as world No. 1 Novak Djokovic and fourth seed Andy Murray had already punched their tickets.
This was the first time Raonic has beaten Nadal in six career meetings. Their first contest was five years ago in Tokyo where Nadal rolled to a 6-4, 6-4 win.
Friday s matchup was a classic contrast in style with the hard-serving Raonic going up against the swashbuckling left-handed Spaniard who runs down every ball and can turn defence into offence.
But Nadal s defence wasn t good enough Friday as Raonic blasted 48 winners and broke Nadal once in the crucial 11th game of the third set, setting the table for himself to serve for the match.
Nadal smacked seven aces and won 82 percent of his first serve points, but he only hit 25 winners and made 22 unforced errors.
He broke Raonic in the second game of the first set. It was the first time in the tournament that Raonic had his serve broken.
Nadal went on to the clinch the first set when Raonic hit a wild forehand that sailed into no-man s land.
Raonic levelled the match at 1-1 by winning the one hour, 20 minute second set in an epic tiebreak in which he saved three match points.
Nadal took a 6-5 lead in the tiebreak but Raonic was able to stay alive when Nadal hit a shot long. Raonic saved another match point when he hammered an overhead smash winner that just caught the sideline.
Raonic clinched the set when Nadal netted another shot.
