Raonic wins Brisbane title, reversing 2015 result v Federer

Milos Raonic is the 2016 Brisbane International champion after he beat Roger Federer 6-4, 6-4 in a repeat of last year’s final on Sunday.

“I’m not going to tell you too much, but it was tough in a way“, Federer said of his illness, knowing the Australian Open starts January 18.

Australia’s Bernard Tomic said his big improvement as a tennis player was on display during his three-set quarter-final win over Kei Nishikori at the Brisbane International on Friday.

“A month or two ago I wasn’t even sure I could play the Australian Open so I’m just so happy to be in Australia, looking forward to playing these two tournaments (with) zero expectations”, the 21-year-old said.

Raonic overcame a brief wobble in the second set, which saw him serve three double faults in one game after taking a medical timeout to address a minor adductor problem.

The 17-time Grand Slam victor was sick last week and asked for his first match to be postponed by 24 hours to give him another day to recover.

“I really thought I hit the ball very well”, the evergreen 34-year-old, lathered in sweat from the muggy Brisbane heat, said in a courtside interview.

The only time that Raonic had got the better of the Swiss tennis maestro was in the quarterfinals of the 2015 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament in Paris when he beat Federer in straight sets 7-6(5) 7-5.

Federer, who went 6-5 in finals in 2015 – with all five losses coming to top-ranked Novak Djokovic – struggled earlier in the week with lingering flu-like symptoms, but improved with four matches in four days, including wins over Grigor Dimitrov in the quarterfinals and Dominic Thiem in the semis.

But Federer, having produced a scintillating display in his semi-final on Saturday, was off-colour here, finishing with 19 unforced errors, compared to 16 winners.

The set looked sure to remain on serve when Federer cruised into a 30-0 lead at 3-3 but he then lost three points in a row, and was broken when he put a weak backhand into the net after a fierce forehand down the line from Raonic. “I hope he can do well at the Australian Open as well”, he said.

“I think I just sort of need matches like today to sort of reset myself”.

The bomb-serving Canadian kicked off 2016 in style by earning his second career win over Roger Federer in the Brisbane final on Sunday.

After wasting a chance to serve for the second set in a nervous 10th game, Dimitrov dominated the tiebreaker and forced a decider.

On the women’s side, fourth-seeded Angelique Kerber moved into the final by beating Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2, 6-3. Will Federer get the win once more?

Federer took just 60 minutes to down the eighth-seeded Austrian 6-1, 6-4.

“I feel like I’m a better player now, so hopefully I can change around that”.