World number three Milos Raonic will be hoping to win his first Grand Slam singles title in 2017, after reaching his first Grand Slam final at Wimbledon last year, just coming up a little short to world number one Andy Murray in that final. The defending champion at the Brisbane International will be looking to reach his third consecutive final in Brisbane, in preparation for the Australian Open that gets underway from January 16th in Melbourne.
Grigor Dimitrov, the seventh seed in Brisbane endured a poor 2015 campaign and some parts of 2016 were underwhelming, which seen him slide down the rankings, but now the former world number eight finished 2016 ranked inside the top 20, and both him and Raonic broke through by reaching the semifinals at SW19 in 2014, however, whilst Raonic looks to be moving on to bigger things, Dimitrov's progress has seemed to stagnate at this current time.
Raonic's coaching team had Carlos Moya and John McEnroe in there last year but he has stuck with long-time coach Riccardo Piatti and has brought on 1996 Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek in 2017 to help him achieve his ambitions.
Raonic's route to the semifinals
The top seed received a bye in the first round, and the Canadian got his 2017 campaign underway against Argentina's Diego Schwartzman, who can be a tricky player but the 2016 Wimbledon runner-up came through that match in flying colours despite dropping his serve once, 6-3, 6-2 to continue his title defence into the quarterfinals.
In the quarterfinals, Raonic was up against fifth seed Rafael Nadal, who is currently ranked at number nine in the world as he suffered yet another injury plagued season in 2016. The Spaniard led 6-1 in their head-to-head meetings, and it looked increasingly likely that Raonic's title defence would end at the hands of Nadal, however, Raonic showed his maturity by recovering from a set down to record his second win over the former world number one, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Dimitrov's route to the semifinals
The world number 17 had a tough first round match with Olympic bronze doubles medalist Steve Johnson but the Bulgarian registered straight sets win over the American, 6-2, 6-3. In the second round, Dimitrov was up against another established doubles player in Nicolas Mahut, defeating the big-serving Frenchman, 6-2, 6-4 to reach his first quarterfinal of the year. The seventh seed met with another fellow Grand Slam semifinalist in fourth seed Dominic Thiem, and the Austrian lost to Novak Djokovic in the semifinals at the French Open last year. Nonetheless, Dimitrov came through this match in straight sets, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.
Their history
Raonic and Dimitrov are still relatively young in their tennis careers with the Canadian at the age of 26, and Dimitrov now 25, there is still time for the two potential poster-boys of tennis to fulfil their potential by winning Grand Slams and Masters 1000 titles. The duo has met on three occasions with all of their meetings taking place on hard courts. Dimitrov leads their head-to-head 2-1, and the duo was meant to compete in the semifinals in Beijing last fall but Raonic withdrew.
The top seed won their first encounter in the quarterfinals of Stockholm back in 2011 with a 7-5, 6-4 scoreline. The duo also met in Brisbane previously but that was four years ago at the second round stage with Dimitrov prevailing 6-3, 6-4. The Bulgarian would go on to take the lead in their head-to-head rivalry by overcoming the Canadian in the third round of the Australian Open in 2014 in four sets, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10). Both players would go on to reach the semifinals at Wimbledon and potentially could meet in more Grand Slam tournaments down the line.
Who reaches the final
This semifinal encounter between Raonic and Dimitrov will see where both players are at ahead of the Australian Open. The Bulgarian slightly needs this win more as it will give him a shot to play Kei Nishikori or Stan Wawrinka in the final, on the other hand, Raonic will want to continue his momentum and play against one of his fellow top five colleagues in the final. Both players are good servers, whilst Raonic's serve is better than Dimitrov but the Bulgarian is the better mover and returner out of the two players.
The seventh seed excels in long baseline rallies, and he possesses a backhand which is a thing of beauty to watch, quite similar to Roger Federer's backhand, which is a reason why he is previously dubbed as "Baby Fed". Raonic's serve and forehand were combining well in his quarterfinal match against Nadal, and having that win over the Spaniard will give him some confidence in this match.
This is the second of the two men's semifinal matches to be played on Saturday in the Pat Rafter Arena, and as aforementioned, the winner will play Nishikori or Wawrinka in Sunday's showpiece final.
Prediction: Raonic in straight sets