Milos Raonic claimed the eighth title of his career in Brisbane

Federer made a late start at the Brisbane International and didn’t play his first match of 2016 until Thursday, something he had requested in order to give himself as much time as possible to recover from a flu-like illness he had contracted from his young children, and also required a groin massage during his quarterfinal match against Grigor Dimitrov.

Azarenka, a two-time Australian Open champion who won the Brisbane title in 2009 and lost the final here in 2013, continued a recent surge in form with a lopsided 6-0, 6-3 win against American qualifier Samantha Crawford in the semifinals. Swiss maestro Roger Federer reached his third successive Brisbane International final today when he crushed Dominic Thiem in a lopsided semi-final.

Despite both players not managing to give their best, it was Raonic who was pushing Federer with some excellent shot-making.

Top-ranked Williams was on the injured list this week, restricted to one set at the Hopman Cup in Perth because of inflammation in her left knee, while No. 2 Simona Halep and 2015 champion Maria Sharapova withdrew from the Brisbane tournament before playing a match and No. 3-ranked Garbine Muguruza retired with injury in her opening match.

Raonic reached the finals in last year’s competition, but fell to Swiss star Roger Federer in the championship match.

Raonic exacted revenge for his defeat to the former world No. 1 in last year’s final, sealing a 6-4 6-4 victory at a packed Pat Rafter Arena on Sunday night.

In a match which lasted one hour and 28 minutes, world no. 14 was clearly the better competitor winning 53% of the total points, including 42 points off his 60 serves.

He said on atpworldtour.com: “I had the opportunity to play him a year ago and it was a different level for me today”.

Federer lost to Lleyton Hewitt in the 2014 title-decider and beat Canadian Milos Raonic to win the title past year.

“I’m feeling good… I didn’t want to play if I wasn’t somewhat prepared, so I worked really hard in the off season to try to catch up a bit”.

“But what I need to do is very clear for myself”, he added. “The body is not quite ready, you know, so it’s good to get through it without any issues”, he said. “It was very special because it was a final… plus, Rod Laver and Roy Emerson were on the court to hand me the trophy and be in the picture with me and the number 1,000”. He came to the net twice to hold for 2-2 and then pounded a devastating backhand victor off Federer’s first serve in the next game.

The Brisbane International is an ATP World Tour tune-up for the upcoming Australian Open.

“Before, when you would see him play you would be, okay, he has a hot streak for a period of time and you see how it’s going to carry him through a 12-month season”, Raonic said.