Indian Wells Day 6: Federer vs. Raonic Preview

There are quite a few popcorn matches today - like Del Potro vs. Verdasco which is going on right now - but I thought today I'd do a preview to probably the most anticipated match of the day; Federer vs. Raonic. It already promises to be a brilliant match but the fact that these two have never played each other before makes it even more exciting.

We've all heard about the danger that Raonic provides for anyone he plays against, mostly because of his missile of a serve but also his follow up - his powerful groundstrokes and his potent net game. All in all he plays really good aggressive tennis and breaking his serve could prove quite difficult.

However, Federer has not had much difficulty with players of this type in the past. We have seen him completely dominate Roddick time after time - Federer seems to like the ball coming onto him. What he doesn't like are the more defensive players like Simon or Murray (in the past) and of course Nadal - but there's a lot more to Nadal's game than just defence.

Having said this, I don't think this match will be as straight forward as a standard Federer-Roddick match in the past. Raonic will certainly be difficult to break for obvious reasons and it is this factor that will make this match interesting. I think we'll see a very close first set - maybe a tie break - but in the end I feel Federer will squeeze through it. This match could go three sets but if I had to bet I'd say Federer in straights as he's on a good run right now, having played brilliantly towards the conclusion of Dubai.