Brisbane International: Fighting Rafael Nadal loses to aggressive Milos Raonic

Spaniard Rafael Nadal lost to a more aggressive Milos Raonic in a high quality quarter-final of the Brisbane International yesterday

Rafael Nadal

Brisbane: Spaniard Rafael Nadal lost to a more aggressive Milos Raonic in a high quality quarter-final of the Brisbane International yesterday.

Raonic, the defending champion, came back from losing the first set to overhaul Nadal 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, disappointing the sell-out crowd who were almost all cheering for a Spanish victory.

He will now play Bulgaria's seventh seed Grigor Dimitrov following a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 winner over fourth ranked Dominic Thiem of Austria.

Milos Raonic

Raonic said he knew he had to be more aggressive if he wanted to win.

"He is always going to defend better than me, so I don't want to play him on those terms," Raonic said.

Nadal said a poor 10-minute spell had changed the match. "I had 10 minutes that were very hard, and playing against a player like him, that's terrible," he said. "He played aggressive, he played great, his returns on my serve during those games were very, very aggressive, and the serve was huge," Nadal added.

"Exciting news! Mid-day is now on WhatsApp Channels Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!