Raonic ousted in 3 sets at Indian Wells
Posted March 16, 2011 12:15 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
THE CANADIAN PRESS
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Milos Raonic’s run at the BNP Parisbas Masters is over as the Canadian rising star dropped a hard-fought 7-6 (7-1), 4-6, 6-4 third-round decision to American teenager Ryan Harrison on Tuesday.
Raonic, who suffered from a back spasm in his second-round win over Mardy Fish on Sunday, battled for two hours 29 minutes and saved three break points before finally falling to Harrison.
Raonic, ranked 37th in the world, saved a match point in the tenth game of the final set as he broke his 152nd-ranked opponent. He also salvaged two more potential match-winners for Harrison in the final game before the American boomed his 11th ace of the match for the win.
Raonic, the 20 year old from Thornhill, Ont., who is known for his booming serve, had 17 aces.
Raonic lost two of three matches to Harrison in junior competition, and the two are likely to see a lot of each other over the coming years.
The two wild-card entries put on a combatitive contest Tuesday, with Raonic saving five of seven break points while breaking four times.
Raonic fell to 16-4 in his breakout season.
Earlier, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic rolled on while Kim Clijsters retired with a painful shoulder.
Federer defeated 29th-seeded Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina 6-0, 6-2, and Djokovic routed Ernests Gulbis 6-0, 6-1 with temperatures reaching 32 degrees in the desert.
Federer is 16-2 this year, while Djokovic has dropped just three sets during his 14-0 start, including his run to the titles at the Australian Open and Dubai.
“I’m very, very focused. Nowadays, I’m feeling great on the court, and I’m motivated to have more success,” Djokovic said. “So I just need to keep up, and that’s what I’m trying to do.”
Djokovic could knock Federer from the No. 2 ranking this week if he reaches the final or he reaches the semifinals and Federer loses before the quarter-finals.
Clijsters, a two-time champion, retired from her fourth-round match against 15th-seeded Marion Bartoli because of a right shoulder injury. She won the first set 6-3 and trailed 3-1 in the second when she left the court.
Clijsters’ shoulder has bothered her since she won the Australian Open in January. She feels pain during her service motion and when she hits high forehands.
“Something is not the way it should be at the moment in this area, so I’m going to have to figure it out, going to have some tests done,” she said. “I don’t want to be in that position where I’m taking medication to cover the pain and not knowing if it’s getting worse during my match.”
Clijsters said she plans to fly to Miami for next week’s tournament and receive treatment before her first match there. She wants to be fully healed for Belgium’s upcoming Fed Cup matches and the clay court season.
She turns 28 in June and has been mostly injury-free since returning to tennis two year ago after retiring to get married and have a child.
“Makes me realize that I’m not the youngest one out there anymore and that I’m also probably not recovering as fast as in the past,” Clijsters said.
Defending champion Jelena Jankovic lost to fellow Serb Ana Ivanovic 6-4, 6-2.
“Even when I was making mistakes, I didn’t let myself get down for it,” Ivanovic said. “I just tried to be persistent, so I’m really happy to have this kind of match.”
Ivanovic is struggling to regain the form that helped her win the 2008 French Open, with injuries and losses knocking her out of the top 20.
Other men’s winners were: No. 7 seed Tomas Berdych, No. 12 Stanislas Wawrinka and No. 16 Viktor Troicki. No. 10 Jurgen Melzer lost to Richard Gasquet, 6-1, 6-3.
— With files from The Associated Press.
