What a great match!Even Milos' second serve is dangerous.

Yes... If I am not wrong he served one ace from second serve.
Great match...thriller... Congrats to Milos... And Tipsy...
Nice way to start season.

typical. Chennai gets blasted for having by far the worst field compared to Doha and Brisbane, then ends up having by far the best matches.

Well, that all depends what you like. If you like watching someone serve unreturnable aces for hours on end, then yes it may well have been the "best match."
If, on the other hand, you like to see fabulous rallies, amazing shot making and incredible athleticism, then it would be Monfils v Rafa.
Or, if you like to see someone dig themselves out of a large hole and end up playing sublime tennis, then it would be Andy v Muller.
Just depends.

I did not see the match but I despair at another member of the Ace Club. We already have Dr Ivo and Isner, now Raonic. Watching a match involving these sort of players is not enjoyable, IMO, I have to add, because some might like it. But just knowing that these giants will hold their serve 99% of the time just with hitting the ball once to serve, drives me crazy. That's not what tennis is about.

Good to see Raonic stepping it up.

Wouldn't want him to play Roger in the AO that's for sure.

For me the best matches were the Fed/Nadal matches between 2006-2010. Those were the matches where we saw incredible shot making and rallies, excellent footwork and point construction. My personal best matches were the Wimbledon 2008; AO 2009 and TMC 2006. Thier matches in 2011 were a bit lopsided sometimes.

Now the Fed/Nole, Nole/Murray, Rafa/Murray matches are all very entertaining matches, Rafa /Delpo on clay too. Not forgetting Fed/Tsonga.

I was referring to the whole Chennai tournament, not just the final. For example, almagro-sugita was the best match of the entire week.

As for raonic-tipsy, you had to actually WATCH the match. You can't make judgments simply by looking at the scoreline.

have to side with Ricky on this one. Murray plowed through the draw in Brisbane. Hardly nailbiting when his last 3 matches were won in easy straight sets. Was hoping Dolgopolov could at least make a match of it.

FYI Ricky, I was not commenting out of ignorance, I saw sets 2 and 3 of Raonic match. In retrospect I can't think why I bothered.
cheryl, I agree Andy ploughing his way through the last 3 matches was not exciting, which is why I named the Andy v. Muller match. It took Andy a set and a half to get on top of Muller.

from what I saw watching this match, Milos still needs to work much on his ROS and on his backhand...but he has really improved...he is already better player than Karlovic, I think..and his mental toughness is amazing...in this match he had numerous break points which he failed to capitalize on...Typsa also played some great tennis and fought hard...I recall that Milos was able to save some break points in the third set by playing brave and aggressive tennis and hitting winners because Typsa managed to return his serve...it was a very interesting match...serving big is such an advantage these days...I learned from deuce that Andy was serving great in Brisbane...I know that Andy's fans rightfully were so thrilled about it and I did not see them complaining about it :) ...so just because our favorites can not serve aces all the time does not mean it is a bad thing...it is such an asset and I just wish Rafa had better serve to save him from trouble sometimes...

Well Rafa did serve well in that 2010 USO and his fans certainly did not complain. I think we like to see players winning points with their all round game rather than by relying heavily on the serves. I do agree that more and more players can serve big these days and I feel having a good ROS helps a lot these days too, in dealing with the big servers. If Raonic had a better ROS and converted some of those break point opportunities, he need not went to three tie break sets to win the match.

I feel that Raonic is so mentally tough partly because he has strong faith in his own serve. He understands that if he serves consistently well, he can hold serves and gets his chances to win in the tie breaks if he can't break his opponent's serve during the match. Those opponents without a good serve would be pressurized in their own service games if they can't break Raonic's serve. Raonic also has a good forehand to back up his very good serve. I like to know Raonic vs Isner, who can hold or break serves better!

I fully agree with you, lucky...and the first thing I thought when the press here published how Raonic moved to place 25 was how good it was for the top players not to have to meet Milos in early rounds at the AO...
I wonder if Rafa will ever serve the way he did at USO 2010...It was so good to see him serve his way out and not to have to fight for every single point as he has to do now...but, Rafa is a fighter and he sure knows how to do it, so if he plays his best or near best tennis he does not need to serve big he will still end up winning his matches...

Vamos Rafa!!!

Yes natashao, the top four guys are all so good at their games that I'm certain they can deal with big servers like Raonic, Isner and Karlovic. They all have positive H2H against these big servers, big hitters, and that's proof enough that they are good at figuring out how to return their opponents' serves. I'm very proud of the top four or even top five guys that we have now, for they are up there for a reason, ie they are simply that good.