Milos Raonic of Canada prepares to hit a return to Jeremy Chardy of France during the Paris Masters tennis tournament October 31, 2012.BENOIT TESSIER/Reuters
Canadian Milos Raonic closed out his 2012 tennis season Thursday by dropping a 6-3, 7-6 (1) decision to American Sam Querrey at the Paris Masters.
The hard-serving No. 14 seed from Thornhill, Ont., had 10 aces on the day but the American countered with an even dozen, wrapping up the match in 71 minutes.
Querrey was brimming with confidence after defeating top-ranked Novak Djokovic a day earlier. The loss also ended Raonic's faint bid to reach next week's eight-man World Tour Finals season wrapup in London.
The players held serve until the second-set tiebreaker when Querrey jumped out to a 5-1 lead. Querrey then connected on a down-the-line forehand winner for five match points.
One was enough as Raonic stabbed a volley into the net. The 21-year-old Canadian admitted a day earlier that he was feeling under the weather with a virus.
"I'm sick at the moment, I don't have fever but I'm struggling with sinuses," he said.
Raonic has now lost twice this season to Querrey, who eliminated him from Wimbledon in the second round.
The Canadian won titles in Chennai and San Jose this season and finished the campaign with a 45-20 record. He also reached finals in Memphis and last month in Tokyo.