Milos Raonic keen to capitalise on pressure on Andy Murray at ATP World Tour Finals
Saturday 19 November 2016 12:58, UK
Milos Raonic says he will try to take advantage of the pressure currently on Andy Murray when the pair meet in the last four of the ATP World Tour Finals on Saturday.
Raonic booked his place in the semi-finals by finishing second to Novak Djokovic in the Ivan Lendl Group, while Murray topped the John McEnroe Group by winning all three matches.
Raonic has won only three of his 11 meetings with Murray and lost all of the last seven, including five this year.
Live Tennis: ATP World Tour Finals
But with Murray fighting to hold on to the world No 1 ranking in front of his home crowd, Raonic believes he can win the mental battle.
He said: "I've played Andy many times this year. I haven't gotten the better of him. He has been playing well. He has been playing a lot of matches.
"I think the one thing that I might have is how much he has really on his shoulders right now: a lot of consecutive matches and what he is playing for.
"I have to try to do my best to try to accentuate that as much as possible in my own favour, so I can really get the most out of myself and hopefully be able to get on top of him for once this year."
Raonic will also be fighting for world ranking position this weekend.
He is currently No 4 but could replace Stan Wawrinka as No 3.
Raonic added: "I had a very big goal of wanting to win my first Slam this year. I came up short on that. That [the No 3 ranking] was what I had for myself as the biggest motivator after the US Open.
"Right now I think I have put myself in a good situation. Obviously there are a lot that plays out tomorrow [Friday], but I've done well to give myself this opportunity."
Check our game-by-game coverage from all group matches at the ATP World Tour Finals in London - including Andy Murray v Stan Wawrinka on Friday afternoon - on skysports.com/tennis, our app for mobile devices and iPad and our Twitter account @skysportstennis.
