Music: {allcanada} Raonic ousted in Malaysian quarters

Friday, October 1, 2010

{allcanada} Raonic ousted in Malaysian quarters

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Canadian teenager Milos Raonic ended the best week of his tennis career Friday when he lost to fellow qualifier Igor Andreev 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 in the quarter-finals of the Malaysian Open.

The 19-year-old from Thornhill, Ont., exits after winning his first two matches at the senior level of the ATP Tour.

Raonic, ranked 237th in the world, was finally stopped by the 102-ranked Russian, a former top-20 player with three titles to his credit.

Raonic (pronounced ray-o-nich) was held to just six aces after producing double figures in his first two victories. The six-foot-five Canadian lost his serve three times and admitted that the loss came down to a contrast in experience between himself and his opponent.

"He started off strong, I knew he would be 100 per cent from the start," said Raonic, whose goal is to climb into the Top 150 in hopes of being seeded for the Australian open qualifying rounds in January.

"I wasn't able to find my way into the match. I hadn't lost serve in my last two matches. When he broke me twice, he started to believe a bit more.

"He put pressure on me from the beginning and never let me really get into the match."

Still Raonic saw positives.

"It's still been a good week, good motivation," he said. "I can see my work is paying off. This is where I want to be, just keeping on working and plugging away."

Raonic upset seventh seed Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine and defeated Russian Igor Kunitsyn earlier in the week.