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1/21/12 12:20 AM | Cheryl Murray
Lleyton Hewitt, who advanced into the third round on an Andy Roddick retirement, will take on the big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic in front of the home crowd.
At age 30 and battling numerous injuries over the past few years, Lleyton Hewitt is likely at the tail-end of his tennis career. But the Aussie, who is back from a toe injury, is still competing hard. Hewitt’s pre-tournament preparation wasn't the best; he lost to Viktor Troicki in the first round of Sydney and had to take a wildcard into the Australian Open because he's ranked No. 181 in the world.
Milos Raonic is rising up the tennis rankings. The Canadian made his first statement on the big stage a year ago in Melbourne and though he battled injury himself for part of the year, his ranking sits at 25th in the world.
This is going to be a tough ask for Hewitt. The crowd will surely give him loads of support, but Raonic has an enormous first serve and he's good enough off the baseline and at net to back the serve up. The two men have never played before.
Prediction – Raonic in straight sets.
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i am surprised Cheryl picked raonic in 3 :S even if hewitt would have lost , he'd have probably taken a set or two . Anyway, roger's prediction came true, he picked hewitt.
vamosrafa , 1/21/12 1:57 PM
WELL DONE Hewitt!!!
Must admit I wasn't expecting this... Roddick... OK... he is out of form but Milos???
I am glad for old guy, my God even he doesn't know how many operation he had, he is almost like Robocop... so many spare parts in him...
zare , 1/21/12 1:59 PM
Fantastic! Was rooting for Lleyton and he didn't disappoint.
samprallica , 1/21/12 2:11 PM
Congrats to Hewitt, he's definitely a better player than Raonic, so proud of him. I think he'll put up a better fight than Raonic against Nole. Well done, old warrior!
luckystar , 1/21/12 2:24 PM
vamosrafa - Hewitt didn't look so spiffy to me against ROddick and his body keeps...breaking. Good on him for winning though. Always nice to see the veterans bring it at home.
cherylmurray , 1/21/12 2:56 PM
Congrats to Hewitt - he deserved the win. I love the warrior in him and hope he plays well against Nole in the next round.
schatz , 1/21/12 3:29 PM
vamosrafa,
I got curious to see how many sets Ricky had predicted ... turns out he had Raonic over Hewitt in 4.
Immigrant Canadian as he is, as I am, and raising Canadians' hopes and interest in tennis... I don't see Raonic making to the highest levels... I think he will sometimes be in the top 10 but probably not in the top 5, certainly not top 3. I hope he proves me wrong.
chlorostoma , 1/21/12 3:37 PM
Hewitt was awful in Sydney....like...diabolically bad. Most everyone had Raonic over Hewitt.
cherylmurray , 1/21/12 3:48 PM
I never bought into the Raonic being the new Sampras thing, he's got a long way to go. They both had the same 1st serve % and that's not even Hewitt's strong point. I'm glad Hewitt won, Nole would have eaten Raonic up for dinner, because he just doesn't have enough in his game to trouble the above average players.
nadline , 1/21/12 3:49 PM
Every tennis cognoscenti was ooohing and aaaahing about Raonic.................glad Hewitt won, was getting sick of the hype.
rafaisthebest , 1/21/12 4:18 PM
Rafa commented after a match with Raonic, that he cud be future world No.1...so not for no reason he was getting hype.....one loss doesnt change that IMO
atul1985 , 1/21/12 5:27 PM
nice prediction, Cheryl!
RickyDimon , 1/21/12 5:35 PM
Nice match up with the young big serving Milos vs veteran great returner Lleyton. Milos played great for the first set then started making mistakes; he's still young in tennis years; probably a good learning experience. Lleyton was smart and just kept the ball low and in play as the match went on. I thought he served really well too.
The Aussie fans looked so happy ... sad for Milos but great to see Hewitt reach the second week after all his injuries.
smr , 1/21/12 6:26 PM
@atul1985 , 1/21/12 5:27 PM
Rafa is a nice guy.
nadline , 1/21/12 7:58 PM
Cheryl, yea thats understandable but lleyton has a pretty strong return of serve so it was obvious he would neutralize raonic's big serving to a good extent and raonic relies too much on his serve. He can improve a lot though, lets see
atul, they have played in tokyo twice and I do not remember rafa making any such comments about raonic being no.1 in future. Rafa praised him with words like impressive dangerous and he admired his serve ...may be i am wrong but cant seem to remember
vamosrafa , 1/21/12 8:52 PM
Milos Raonic
Lleyton Hewitt
Australian Open
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Experience won over youth. Hweitt won in 4 sets - 46 63 76 63.
Raonic has a great serve but he can't move around very well and if he comes up against a good player who can read his serve, his chances of winning diminishes several notches.
nadline , 1/21/12 1:52 PM