Milos Raonic crashed the Big Four party with a hard-fought three-set win over world No. 3 Rafael Nadal to reach the Indian Wells ATP Masters semi-finals.
Canada’s Raonic beat Nadal for the first time. He blasted 19 aces, hammered a series of thunderous forehands and saved three match points to upset the Spaniard 4-6, 7-6 (12/10), 7-5 and set up a semi-final clash with Roger Federer.
The 24-year-old’s shocking win over nine-time French Open champ Nadal spoils what could have been a semi-final lineup that featured each of the top four seeds as world No. 1 Novak Djokovic and fourth seed Andy Murray had already punched their tickets.
“You just want to prove people wrong in that sense,” Raonic said of being the spoiler. “It has some good feel to it.”
Raonic had lost five prior matches against the swashbuckling Spaniard and said he had to forget about who he was playing against and just figure out what he had to do to play each point better.
He said the key to beating Nadal was to “not get too caught up in the person you’re playing and respect them, but not give them too much overwhelming respect where it affects your tennis.
– ‘Kind of peace’ –
“I think when you have knowledge, when you have an understanding, it gives you some kind of peace,” he said.
Friday’s matchup was a classic contrast in style with the hard-serving Raonic going up against the tricky left-hander who runs down every ball and can turn defence into offence.
But Nadal’s defence wasn’t good enough as Raonic blasted 48 winners and broke Nadal once in the crucial 11th game of the third set, setting the table for himself to serve for the match.
Four-time champ Federer turned in a textbook performance in just over an hour showing no mercy with a 6-4, 6-0 win over pesky Czech Tomas Berdych in a quarter-final match that took just 68 minutes.
Federer, who has a 15-1 record this season on the ATP Tour, remained on course for an unprecedented fifth Indian Wells title after winning previously here in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2012.
Raonic and Federer met for the first time in 2012 here in Indian Wells with Federer winning in three sets 6-7 (4/7), 6-2, 6-4.
Federer is 8-1 in his career against Raonic, but the youngster is showing signs of figuring out what it takes to win on the big stage.
“It’s having a better match judgement of when to sort of step up, when you can sort of hold back,” Raonic said.
“It gives you some kind of calm during a match that you can really believe and understand what you need to do to find the solutions.”
Fourth seed Murray advanced on Thursday with a straight-sets win over Spain’s Feliciano Lopez, booking a showdown with defending champion Djokovic, who advanced by walkover when Bernard Tomic withdrew from their scheduled quarter-final on Thursday.
Djokovic will be well rested Saturday after getting an extra day’s rest and aiming to improve his 16-8 career record against Murray.
But Murray has had some of his biggest career wins against Djokovic and is playing with plenty of confidence right now.
“He’s played extremely well here in the past. He will be totally fresh as well and ready for the semis,” he said.
“But I feel like I played well this week and if I can keep that level up and for a sustained period on Saturday, I’ll have a chance.”