Milos Raonic admits he was relieved to secure his progress through to the semi-finals of the ATP World Tour Finals following his straight sets victory over Dominic Thiem on Thursday.
Both players went into the match knowing a victory would see them progress through to the last four of the event as runner-up to Novak Djokovic in the Ivan Lendl Group.
World number four Raonic had won the only previous meeting between two players, a quarter-final success at the Cincinnati Masters earlier this year, and he secured another victory on Thursday, prevailing 7-6 (7-5) 6-3.
The Canadian was particularly impressive with his serve, hitting three consecutive aces towards the end of the first set, and he admitted after the match that he was relieved to book his place in the semi-finals of the competition.
“I got fortunate at the end of the first set there to hit three aces. That helped me out and saved me in a lot of important moments today.
I stuck with my weapons and I stuck with what I know how to do best and I was fortunate to get through today,” he told reporters.
“It wasn’t a round-robin match; it was a quarter-final for the both of us, and I’m fortunate I was able to win it.”
The 2016 Wimbledon finalist has never before made it into the semi-finals of the event at London’s O2 Arena, and he will now face the winner of the John McEnroe Group for a place in the final.
The 25-year-old is available at 10.00 to go on and win the tournament, as he chases his first success on the ATP Tour since his victory at the Brisbane International in January.
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