Milos Raonic beats Stan Wawrinka on January 1st 2016 to take his place in the final of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship against Rafael Nadal.

Milos Raonic left behind his injury-hit 2015 with a win on the very first day of 2016. He beat world number 4 Stan Wawrinka at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship.

The 25-year-old, who parted company with coach Ivan Ljubicic and manager Austin Nunn at the end of last year, bettered the French Open champion 7-5, 7-5.

It's a big scalp for the Canadian: Wawrinka has won all four of their meetings so far on the ATP Tour.

Raonic will go on to face Rafael Nadal on Saturday (January 2nd) in the final of the tournament in Abu Dhabi.

After vanquished Wawrinka, Nadal - at 5 in the world - is the second-highest ranked player in the tournament.

Though that won't faze the young Canadian, he might want to take a look at some of Nadal's outrageous exhibition tennis. It was of the highest quality here in Abu Dhabi on Friday as he beat compatriot David Ferrer 6-3 6-7 (4-7) 6-3.