As much as Milos Raonic likes to go on about being sick and tired of continually losing to the top players in the world, the twenty-three year old has a long ways to go before he has any chance of beating the likes of Roger Federer during the final rounds of a Masters 1000 or Grand Slam event.
The Swiss Maestro improved his career mark to a perfect 6-0 against the hard serving Canadian on Sunday evening, in what was a near carbon copy of their semi-final showdown at Wimbledon back in early July. Federer had to barely break a sweat in dismissing the No. 5 seed in straight sets, 6-2 and 6-3, to reach his sixth career final at the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Contrary to what he might have you believe, Raonic did not play a particularly poor opening set but the overall shortcomings in his game continue to cause him trouble against the premier players in the world. While he has managed to improve on his shot selection and court coverage over the past calendar year, the overall package is still nowhere near good enough to give him a realistic shot at winning against the elite players in the game.
While Milos was struggling to hold his serve in the first set, as the pressure of the situation was clearly getting to him, Federer did not lose a single point in any of his four service games. In all honesty, while the two may not be that far a way from one another when it comes to point totals earned in the ATP World Rankings, they are light years apart on the court.
The second set was a perfect example, as Raonic fought like hell to keep the proceedings on serve for as long as he could but Roger pulled out a crucial break of serve at 4-3, with some brilliant shot making when he needed it most. It was as if he decided to hit the switch and end it.
The match took just over an hour to complete, with the seventeen-time Grand Slam champ committing all of eight unforced errors for the match while winning fourteen of sixteen points at the net. It was a sublime performance and there was quite literally nothing the young Canadian could do about it.
With the victory Federer will be going after the sixth Cincinnati Masters title of his storied career on Sunday afternoon, where he will take on No. 6 seed David Ferrer, who also breezed through his semi-final match against Julien Benneteau by a score of 6-3, 6-2. Having said that, the Spaniard will certainly be in tough, as he not only holds a career record of 0-15 against Federer but also comes into tomorrow’s match-up with 1-5 mark in ATP Masters 1000 Finals.
Whereas the No. 2 seed will be going after the twenty-second Masters crown of his career and eightieth overall, which trails only Ivan Lendl (94) and Jimmy Connors(109) on the all-time list. However, Federer has gone 0-3 in Masters 1000 Finals in 2014 and has not been able to lock one down since winning in Cincinnati, Indian Wells and Madrid back in 2012.
