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BARCLAYS ATP WORLD TOUR FINALS

November 15, 2016

Milos Raonic

London, England, United Kingdom

N. DJOKOVIC/M. Raonic

7-6, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Obviously you played quite well in the first set, had good chances. Close second set. You came back. What's the difference with Novak, your struggle overall against him?
MILOS RAONIC: He played solid in all of them, I believe all the breakpoints, except for maybe the set point at the end, he put in a first serve every single time. I believe when he had his breakpoints, I didn't put in one.

I think it's those little things that make a difference. I think he's probably winning over 75% of his first serve points and I'm probably doing the same. Those moments he stepped up and played well. I just maybe hesitated a little bit too much.

But overall I created a lot of opportunities. I did a lot of good things. A lot of things to be proud of.

Q. Did he feel a little bit more attackable or vulnerable than other times you played him?
MILOS RAONIC: He's pretty much where he's always been. Sometimes he slips up one or two points, sometimes he lets it be three points now. I think that's the only difference. Before it would be very rarely you would see two successive poor points from him.

Q. Compared to the other matches you lost to him, do you think somehow today was different?
MILOS RAONIC: Today was much better on my behalf. I created quite a few opportunities on his serve. I don't think I faced any breakpoints in the first set. I got ahead. I had looks at it, whereas the last times I didn't.

Q. Can you tell us a little bit how you feel emotionally about this, and also if you look forward to the next match against Dominic?
MILOS RAONIC: Emotionally I'm a little bit upset, but it passes over quickly. It's not the kind of format where it stays with you. I have a chance in two days, 36 hours, 48 hours to come back and do better than I did today.

I think I did a lot of things well that I hope I can continue into the next match. I hope I can serve a little bit better in the next one.

Q. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it feels like you're coming to net a bit less the past few weeks compared to the first half of the season. Is it because of the physical issues you've been having?
MILOS RAONIC: Well, it's a little bit of everything. I think with Novak, obviously you have to be a bit more selective when you come forward. But I think it's also because I haven't spent time on court. When I have been on court, due to physical issues, it's mostly playing like a longer warmup, whereas I haven't had the opportunity to really work on coming forward, those kind of things I would normally do.

I think I hesitated a little bit more, it's not as instinctual, I'm not jumping on the first chance I have to come forward.

Q. It looked like you were moving very well again. Is there anything left over from the quad muscle tear?
MILOS RAONIC: I hope not. I don't feel it so far. Hopefully it doesn't come back.

Q. Based on how well you played and how many opportunities you had, do you feel that was a match you could have won or a match you should have won?
MILOS RAONIC: Could have. If I should have won it, I probably would have. I could have won it.

I gave myself some chances there. He played well in most of those chances. You know, it is what it is. Sometimes us tennis players, we struggle to forget. But that's the number one thing I've got to do right now.

Q. Can you tell us a little bit about your expectations from the match against Dominic now. You played him before. What do you think about his game?
MILOS RAONIC: Yeah, he's playing well. I watched some of his match today. It was a little bit of a weird match, a little up and down.

But he's been doing stuff well throughout this whole year. Obviously, just like myself, he played extremely well at the beginning of the year. Hasn't necessarily played his best tennis since.

Fortunately for me I hope it works out that way. This is one of my best surfaces. I don't know if indoor hard courts is necessarily his. So hopefully I can take time away from him and play on my terms and have him react to the things I put forward and try to push him around.

Q. You generally have success in tiebreaks. Against Djokovic, you seem to struggle. Is there one thing that he does that makes it difficult for you?
MILOS RAONIC: Well, he puts more returns in than anybody else other than probably Andy. But Andy's really picked that up over the past few months, whereas Novak has been doing that for a very long time.

Q. Davis Cup is coming to Ottawa. Your thoughts on the fact that you have to play the Australian Open, travel across the country, then have Davis Cup in Ottawa? Anywhere in Canada is great, but a bit of a haul for you guys.
MILOS RAONIC: I think it's probably the best solution because my plan was to be back there anyways after the Australian Open due to the fact that my next tournaments anyways are in North America, in that time zone.

It's an ideal setting. I'm sure it will be a great venue as well.

Q. With your kind of serve, you take a lot of chances, first and second serve. Do you think on the set point of the first set when you double-faulted, do you feel more pressure, you're nervous because you didn't put the first serve in, you are facing someone returning well so you're more tense? Does it happen often or just a pure coincidence that happened today?
MILOS RAONIC: There was that sort of long point that I managed to get maybe a bit of momentum shift on my end to get to 6-All. At 6-All I had that forehand return on a second serve which I would have wished to do better. I don't think I put that quickly enough behind me. I let it drag through to the next point a bit too much.

Q. We probably get a little too hung up on head-to-heads. But when it gets to 8-0, does it have some sort of effect on the big points even if subliminally?
MILOS RAONIC: I don't necessarily think so. If I was 0-7 against somebody 80 in the world, I don't think I'd give it too much thought. It's the guy who has been the No. 1 player how many weeks until seven or nine days ago. I think it's more those kind of factors than anything else.

Because each day is quite new, and you deal with a lot of different things, obviously it gives you some assurance. Obviously if I'm on the other end of that, you try to play to that favor. But I don't think it really makes that much of a difference as people think.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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