Milos Raonic Faces Isner for Quarter Final Spot in Cincinnati

After a comfortable straight sets win over Janko Tipsarevic, Milos Raonic faces a rarity. An opponent that’s bigger than him. Al Dannity previews Raonic’s third round clash with John Isner.

The comeback always seemed inevitable. 2013 has been and up and down year for John Isner, a top 10 talent often playing like a man who barely belonged in the main draw. The summer swing since Wimbledon has been far kinder to the American. Isner reached the semi-finals in Newport Beach, then won in Atlanta, and reached the final in Washington. It was comfortably his most consistent stretch of the season. In Montreal he ran into Vasek Pospisil, who parlayed an upset of Isner into a run to the semi-finals. Pospisil couldn’t maintain the momentum this week, falling to David Goffin 6-1 6-1 yesterday.

Isner bounced right back from his disappointment in Montreal, with straight sets wins over Florian Mayer and Richard Gasquet. The American is best known for his marathon match with Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon in 2010 and stands 6’10”. That gives him a five inch height advantage over Milos Raonic, his opponent today. Normally this isn’t a huge factor in tennis but when two big servers meet, such a gap becomes visibly obvious in how the game plays out. Raonic will be tempted to adopt the role of being the smaller man but the Canadian can’t allow himself to fall into such a trap. Yes, Isner has a height advantage but that doesn’t change the core strengths of Raonic’s game. If anything, Raonic should be even more focussed on the power in his play. The Canadian must force Isner to be mobile and try to stretch out the rangy American.

There is reason for confidence in Raonic based on his performance yesterday. A 6-4 7-6 over Janko Tipsarevic was the type of business-like match the Thornhill, Ont. player needed. Having been pushed the distance in his tournament opener against Jack Sock, there were worries that Raonic hadn’t recovered from Sunday’s shellacking at the hands of Rafael Nadal. A straight sets win over a quality opponent was just what he needed. Now Raonic stands one match away from a clash with world number 1 Novak Djokovic. A win today is about more than the prize of facing the Serb. If Raonic can pull through, he’ll match his performance at this tournament last year. That’s of paramount importance in terms of rankings points. The summer stretch was Raonic’s best last year and he needs to match his 2012 display to secure a top 10 place through the US Open. I like Raonic to win at +147.