Canadian Milos Raonic defeated Serbian Miomir Kecmanović 6-3, 6-4 in the first round of the tennis tournament in the Netherlands’ ‘s-Hertogenbosch on Monday, securing his first win at an ATP tournament in a year and a half in over two years .
The 32-year-old Ontarian, who was third in the world rankings in men’s singles in 2016 and 2017, needed 84 minutes to finish the duel on grass.
“It’s nice to have another try and hope to go as far as possible. I’ve done my best and I want to see how far I can go with that,” said Raonic.
Raonic suffered injuries to an Achilles tendon and a toe and had not played on the men’s track since July 28, 2021 during a tournament in Atlanta. Then he had to accept a defeat in three sets against the American Brandon Nakashima.
He occupied 22nd placee Rank when he last played on the circuit.
Raonic was included in the main draw of the tournament, which has 32 players, thanks to its preliminary classification. The ATP 250 tournament brings together the Russian Daniil Medvedev and the Italian Jannik Sinner as headliners.
“A real pleasure”
“It was a real pleasure to play in front of people. I haven’t hit a tennis ball in a year and now I’m playing in front of a crowd of spectators. It was pretty annoying. “I had forgotten that feeling,” admitted the Canadian.
“To be honest, it might have been easier if I hadn’t played in front of anyone today. »
Against a player rated 39eRaonic beat the aces 15-4 – 10 of them in set number two – winning 92% of the points after landing his first serve of the game.
Against Kecmanović he improved to 3:0. His other two wins came in 2019 on hard courts and outdoors.
In his next outing, Raonic meets the winner of the duel between Australia’s Jordan Thompson and Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, a Frenchman from qualifying.
In 2016, Raonic reached the final of the Wimbledon Open, becoming the first Canadian in the pro era to reach the men’s singles final of a Grand Slam tournament.
On Monday, Ontario’s Carol Zhao defeated Belgium’s Ysaline Bonaventure 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4). In the next round, Zhao meets tournament favorite Veronika Kudermetova from Russia.
Sixth-seeded Bianca Andreescu is also involved in the tournament and will take to the pitch on Tuesday to face Turkey’s Zeynep Sönmez.
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