Sixth seeded Milos Raonic will face the challenge of the seventh seeded Borna Coric at the ATP St. Petersburg Open semifinal on Saturday, October 17. The exact timing of the match is yet to be determined. Get the live streaming options of this Milos Raonic v Borna Coric match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Milos Raonic v Borna Coric to Head
This will be the second meeting between Raonic and Coric after having played each other in the 2017 Delray Beach Open pre-quarterfinal round. There, Raonic had run away to a straight-set win over Coric.
Also Read:
Raonic Thunders Past Khachanov
The Canadian is one of the best servers on the tour and he showed why in his quarterfinal against Karen Khachanov. Raonic blasted 15 aces in the second set alone, to ensure there would be no coming back from a lacklustre first set for the Russian, winning 6-1, 7-6 to move into the semis.
What’s interesting to note here is like how things went in the first two rounds for Raonic, he continued to remain unbroken on serve and has now saved all of the 10 break-points which he has faced this tournament.
That’s 29 straight games without getting broken in the match.
This was after Raonic ran away to a rather quick start in the first set. He held easily in the opening game and then warded off two game points before getting the early break. The Canadian doubled his advantage with another break in the fourth game and served out the set at 5-1.
While Khachanov did well to push the second set to a tie-breaker, Raonic rattled off four points in a row to grab the early initiative and finally wrapped it up 7-1.
With form like this, he could prove to be of the strong contenders for the tournament, not just this match alone.
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Coric Tames Big-Serving Opelka
While facing Raonic won’t be easy given his serving form, Coric will take a lot of confidence from how his match went against Reilly Opelka.
One of the stronger servers on tour, Opelka had earlier stunned Daniil Medvedev in the previous round and when he got the early break and went 5-2 up in the first set, it looked like Coric would have to come up with some solid answers.
Coric held his next service game to love and then saved three set-points in the ninth game before breaking Opelka. Another excellent service game levelled it at 5-5 and it was soon tie-breaker time where Coric broke the American twice to clinch it 7-3.
The second set was a breeze as Coric began to read Opelka much better, breaking him in the fourth game and wrapping up the set and the match after that.
Interestingly, like Raonic, Coric is also yet to drop a set in this tournament and has had one strong showing since returning to the circuit after the pandemic break. While Raonic’s big showing came at the Cincinnati Masters where he reached the final, Coric was a quarterfinalist at the US Open before he went down to Alexander Zverev.
Raonic v Coric Prediction and Tip
Raonic is an odds on favourite to win this with bet365 offering 2/5 for his victory. What will be interesting to see if Coric can break Raonic for the first time in this tournament.
Tip: Total Tie-Breakers in the Match – Over 0.5: 8/11 (bet365)
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The St. Petersburg Open 2020 will be played from October 12 to 18. You can watch & bet on the St. Petersburg Open here. Get your latest premium tennis predictions here.
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