Raonic bumped at Paribas Open semis
INDIAN WELLS, California — Dominic Thiem outlasted Canadian Milos Raonic in three sets Saturday to reach the BNP Paribas Open final, where he’ll meet Roger Federer who advanced after Rafael Nadal withdrew with a knee injury.
Thiem dispatched the No. 13 seed from Thornhill, Ont., 7-6 (3), 6-7 (3), 6-4 to advance to the championship game. The No. 7 seed from Austria will take on Federer, who didn’t have to hit a ball to reach the final.
“Definitely, some things I would have liked to do better, but I thought, you know, I competed and I tried to figure things out as best as I could,” said Raonic, who has made it to at least the quarterfinals at this event in the past five appearances. “Sort of the way it goes.
“He played well. He did the things smart, and he did the things better, at the end.”
Raonic missed a chance to make it a true Canada-day championship today.
Bianca Andreescu, of Mississauga, Ont., will face Angelique Kerber of Germany in the women’s final.
Raonic had won his previous two matches against Thiem.
“He wasn’t missing many first serves. He was pushing me back, and then he was aggressive from the very first ball,” Raonic said. “There wasn’t many times that I got to be on the offensive on the return games, and, when I did, I wasn’t efficient about taking advantage of it.
“He had opportunities today to break me. He used one of them.”
A sombre Nadal, meanwhile, announced his withdrawal two hours before he was scheduled to take the court at Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
“I warmed up in the morning, and I felt that my knee was not enough good to compete at the level that I need,” he said.
Nadal’s right knee flared up in the second set of his 7-6 (2), 7-6 (2) victory over Karen Khachanov in Friday’s quarterfinals. He twice called for a trainer, who applied tape just below Nadal’s knee. It was obvious that Nadal’s movement was hampered.
Nadal said he won’t play again until the Monte Carlo Masters on clay in mid-April.
“I don’t have doubts today that I will be ready for Monte Carlo,” he said.
Knee problems have dogged the 32-year-old Spaniard for years, and they cut short his 2018 season after the U.S. Open in September. He was forced to quit two sets into his semifinal against Juan Martin del Potro.
It would have been the 39th career meeting between Nadal and Federer, who advances to today’s final in pursuit of a record sixth title at Indian Wells.