It wasn't pretty, but Raonic edges Querrey for Indian Wells final four

“Puzzling.” “Strange.” “A head-scratcher.” Those were the words that TV commentators used to describe the first two sets of the quarterfinal between Milos Raonic and Sam Querrey at Indian Wells on Friday. But when one of those commentators, Pam Shriver, asked Raonic’s coach, Goran Ivanisevic, for his own description, the always-honest Croat had a different word for it.

“I think in general it’s a terrible match,” he said.

Who did Ivanisevic think would win this debacle?

“Whoever is gonna play less bad.”

Can we get Goran a commentary gig of his own soon?

Ivanisevic’s judgement may have been harsh, but he wasn’t entirely wrong—the Canadian and the American had each taken a turn frittering away his momentum. Querrey broke serve in the opening game, and dominated in his next five service games; at one point, he won 16 of 19 points in those games. But that all changed when he served for the first set at 5-4. Querrey missed a forehand long, drilled another one into the net, plunked a routine volley into the net, and hit a backhand long. He was broken, and a few minutes later it was Raonic who snuck away with the set.

How did Raonic react to his good fortune? Serving at 1-1 in the second set, he began yelling in the direction of Ivanisevic for no apparent reason. The more Raonic raged, the worse he played, and he was broken at love. This time, instead of handing the break back, Querrey ran away with the set.

The two men stayed even through the first six games of the third set. But credit Raonic for not merely playing less bad the rest of the way; credit him for coming up with exactly the shots he needed when he needed them. At 3-3, he held serve with a slice overhead from the baseline that caught a millimeter of the sideline. At 4-3, with a break point on Querrey’s serve, Raonic turned his worst shot—his return—into his best, when he ran around and cracked a forehand winner on a spinning Querrey serve. Finally, serving for the match at 5-3, Raonic saved two break points with aces, and one with a body serve—exactly the shot that Ivanisevic said he hadn’t been using often enough. On his second match point, Raonic closed it out with a forehand winner.

With a win, Querrey would have cracked the Top 10 for the first time, and reached the semifinals for the first time at what is essentially his home event. Those milestones may have weighed him down, and like Raonic, Querrey was showed an uncharacteristic amount of frustration.

For the Canadian, while it wasn’t a pretty match, it was a very good result. Raonic, a former Top 5 player, was ranked 38th coming into Indian Wells, and he had a 1-3 record in 2018. Now he’s into his third semifinal at the BNP Paribas Open.

“He’s helped me keep it simple,” Raonic said of Ivanisevic.

Sometimes, the “terrible” truth hurts—and sometimes it helps to hear it.

In today's Daily Mix from Indian Wells, John Zinni previews the women's semifinals:

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