LONDON, November 17, 2016

Milos Raonic defeated Dominic Thiem in Thursday’s evening session at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, winning 7-6, 6-3  to reach the semi-finals at London’s O2. The 25-year-old Canadian, who is appearing in the season finale for the second time in three years, impressev with strong serves, firing 14 aces. Raonic finished the encounter after 90 minutes to mark a historic first singles semi-final appearance from Canada in the ATP Finals.

“I got fortunate at the end of the first set hitting three aces. This helped me out and eventually to go through today,” Raonic told afterwards.  “It was a great match today. It wasn’t a round robin match, but actually a quarterfinal and i am happy that I was able to win it.”

Four-time reigning ATP World Tour Finals champion Novak Djokovic had already locked up a spot in the semi-finals by winning Group Ivan Lendl, but also dominated David Goffin of Belgium in his final round-robin match earlier on Thursday. The 29-year-old Serbian saved the only break point he faced, capitalizing on four of his own chances to secure a 6-1, 6-2 victory in 69 minutes.

“I’m very glad that my game is going in the right direction. Today I felt the most comfortable, definitely, so far in the tournament. I’m looking forward to the semi-finals on Saturday,” said Djokovic, firmly keeping the pressure on Andy Murray in the battle for year-end No. 1 in the ATP Rankings.