Raonic Survives Kendrick

Rising Canadian tennis star Milos Raonic(rank 59) defeated American Robert Kendrick(rank 110) today in a 3 set thriller at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Raonic started out strong jumping ahead with an early break of serve to take the first set without facing a break point.

Raonic faultered in the second set however; dropping serve and appearing marginally flustered. Raonic could not break back late in the second set, despite a good effort to do so. Kendrick showed flashes of brilliance but won the set due to Raonic lowering his game rather than Kendrick finding a higher level. The second set went to Kendrick 3-6. 

Raonic blew out of the gates in the third set by taking the first three games. The change of momentum appeared to surprise Kendrick and he appeared flustered and agitated for the rest of the set. Kendrick could often be seen abusing his racquet or clearly wanting to. Kendrick obtained three chances to even the final set in the 7th game of the set but could not convert; leading to Raonic going up 5-2. Raonic held serve once more to win the final set and the match.

There was some controversy in the final game of the match when Raonic claimed that a linesperson called a ball out - which would have given him the match a point earlier. The chair umpire did not listen to Raonic and gave the point to Kendrick. Raonic responded by serving an ace to win the match. Unfortunately, Raonic then proceded NOT to shake the hand of the chair umpire after shaking Kendrick's hand. An unfortunate blight on an otherwise excellent match.