Raonic Battles Back To Reach Washington QFs

  • Posted: Aug 04, 2017

Raonic Battles Back To Reach Washington QFs

Sock prevails on Thursday

Third seed Milos Raonic moved closer to a second Citi Open title on Thursday, saving a pair of set points en route to prevailing in a tight 7-6(7), 6-4 battle with Marcos Baghdatis to reach the quarter-finals.

Both men held serve throughout the first set, but Baghdatis was unable to convert on  a 6/4 lead in the tie-break. The Canadian fought back to grab the early advantage on his second set point at 8/7. Raonic rode the momentum through the remainder of the match, breaking Baghdatis twice in the second set to advance in one hour and 31 minutes. He improved his FedEx ATP Head2Head over Baghdatis to 3-1. Raonic also saved two set points in the second set of his opening-round win on Wednesday against Nicolas Mahut. 

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Next up for Raonic is eighth seed Jack Sock, who advanced in an all-American battle with #NextGenATP American Jared Donaldson 7-6(6), 6-2. Sock’s match was nearly identical to Raonic’s, saving a pair of set points at 4/6 in the first-set tie-break before going on to control the remainder of the match. He boosts his FedEx ATP Head2Head against Donaldson to 2-0, with the other win coming this past March at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Miami.

Raonic leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head with Sock 8-2 and won their lone meeting at the Citi Open in 2014. Sock saved two match points to take their most recent match this past October at the Shanghai Rolex Masters. They were scheduled to compete this February in the Delray Beach Open final, but Raonic withdrew before taking the court due to a hamstring tear in his right leg.

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