Raonic chases top 3 spot

[caption id="attachment_99785" align="alignleft"] Milos Raonic
[/caption] LONDON — Less than two weeks after pulling out of the Paris Masters semifinals with a thigh injury, Milos Raonic reached the last four at the ATP World Tour Finals and is close to breaking into the top three of the rankings. His 7-6 (5), 6-3 victory over Austrian Dominic Thiem Thursday left him second in the Ivan Lendl Group behind Novak Djokovic who won all his three matches. Raonic will next meet world No. 1 Andy Murray, the man he was supposed to play in the last four in Paris, for a place in the final providing the Briton beats Swiss Stan Wawrinka Friday to seal top spot in the John McEnroe Group. “I’ve played Andy many times this year,” Raonic told reporters. “I haven’t gotten the better of him. “The one thing I might have is how much he has on his shoulders right now, a lot of consecutive matches, and what he’s playing for,” he added in reference to Murray bidding to end the year as world No. 1. “I have to try to do my best to accentuate that as much as possible in my own favor so I can really get the most out of myself and hopefully be able to get on top of him for once this year.” Murray has an 8-3 win-loss record against Raonic who has been beaten in all their five encounters this season. The Canadian also has a target to aim for as he looks to climb from fourth to third in the rankings. “It’s very big for me. I had a very big goal of wanting to win my first slam this year. I came up short on that,” said Raonic. Murray, Soares still on course to end year as No. 1s Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares stayed on track to end 2016 as the world number ones after reaching the ATP World Tour doubles semifinals by beating Croat Ivan Dodig and Brazilian Marcelo Melo 6-3, 3-6, 10-6 Thursday. Briton Murray and Brazilian Soares are top of the Edberg/Jarryd Group and provisionally leapfrogged Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the world rankings. — Agencies