Murray faces Raonic in must win match

With the loser likely to be eliminated from the event, it`s a winner takes all clash between Andy Murray and Milos Raonic at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London.

Raonic comes in to the Group B match having lost his opening match in straight sets to group favourite Roger Federer and while disappointing for the Canadian, this is something that both Murray and the other group contender, Kei Nishikori can most likely look forward to. Despite this opening defeat to Federer, Raonic is coming in to the Tour Finals in good form, having made it through the final in Paris prior to the start of this event and also took the second set of his straight sets defeat to Federer in to a tie-break.

Murray, on the other hand, lost his first match to Nishikori and this will have hurt the Scot as it would have been one of the two matches earmarked by him to win, especially with Federer still to play in the group. Despite the defeat, there were some signs of encouragement for Murray, coming back from 0-3 down in the second set to make it 4-3 in his favour and it`s this type of character that he will have to show against Raonic if he wants to stay in contention for the knockout stages of the tournament.

Despite the opening match loss to Nishikori, BetVictor still have Murray as favourite for this match at 4/7, with Raonic available at 13/8 with paddypower. However, if Murray is to succeed here, he will have to play better than he has done against Raonic in previous encounters.

The head-to-head record between these two stands at 4-2 in favour of Raonic and, perhaps more importantly, Raonic has defeated Murray in their last two meetings, one of which was earlier this year and the Canadian will surely look to this for confidence before the match. A feature of those victories against Murry has been the serve, with the Scot struggling to cope at times with the huge serve of Raonic and he will know that if he can bring his best service game to the court then he stands a great chance of winning the match. Murray, on the other hand, will have to look back at his performances in the events leading up to the ATP Tour World Finals, having taken the title at both Vienna and Valencia. However, it`s the participation at these events which could ultimately prove to be his downfall, having played so much tennis over the last six weeks and not leaving enough in the tank to be able to perform at his best in London. Furthermore, on analysis, Murray will have to look at his second serve and improve on the 26% of points that he won on it against Nishikori.

As mentioned previously, Raonic defeated Murray in their only previous meeting this year and that was a 3 set victory at the Indian Wells Masters. With it being a close match and little to separate the players, it may come down to how well Raonic serves and if he serves well, it will be tough for Murray to gain a footing in the match. Coupled with the out of sorts performance against Nishikori, partially due to the amount of tennis he has played recently, Murray could struggle to compete with the Canadian if the match goes all the way, which is a distinct possibility given their previous match this year. ladbrokes offer 6/4 for the match to go to 3 sets and SkyBet 9/2 for Raonic to win in 3 sets, which he has done in their previous two meetings.

Go To bet365

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11/11/2014     © Frixo 2026