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Canadian Milos Raonic defeated Spaniard Fernando Verdasco in the finals of the SAP Open in San Jose, CA to win his 1st ATP title |
20-year-old
Milos Raonic, the unseeded, 6'5" 200-pound Canadian player
who reached the 4th round of the 2011 Australian Open, continued his excellent play by
defeating defending champion (and
erstwhile underwear model)
Fernando Verdasco 7-6(6) 7-6(5). Raonic won his first ATP tour title and denied Verdasco his first chance to defend a tour title. The Canadian of Serbian descent (he was born in Montenegro) becomes the youngest man to win an ATP Tour title since Croatian
Marin Cilic won the New Haven title at 19 in 2008. Raonic becomes the first Canadian to win a tour title since
Greg Rusedski in 1995. He rises to #59 in the world rankings; he started the year at #184.
The final was played without a single break of serve. Verdasco held 4 consecutive set points at 6-2 in the first set tiebreaker and managed to lose the next 6 points to drop the first set. Raonic had a walkover in the semifinal over an injured
Gael Monfils while Verdasco dismissed the always dangerous
Juan Martin del Potro 6-4 6-4 in the other semifinal. In fact, Verdasco lost his service
once in the entire tournament (against del Potro) and still did not defend his title.
Bzarrely, Raonic and Verdasco will meet again on Wednesday in the first-round of the hard-court tournament in Memphis.