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His 7-6 (5) 6-3 victory over Austrian Dominic Thiem on
Thursday left him second in the Ivan Lendl Group behind Novak
Djokovic who won all his three matches.
Raonic will next meet world number one 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 on
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 number one.
"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.
"That was what I had for myself as the biggest motivator after
the U.S. Open."
Japan's Kei Nishikori, the world number five, will also be on
court Friday when he plays Croatian Marin Cilic.
(Writing by Julien Pretot; Editing by Tony Jimenez)
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