Raonic through to Quarterfinals « Milos Raonic

28Apr/11Off

Raonic through to Quarterfinals

Milos Raonic defeated Portuguese wildcard Joao Sousa in straight sets, 6-3 6-3. It wasn't a picture perfect perfomance by Milos, but he held the advantage throughout the entire match and was never really in danger of falling behind at any point.

Raonic got off to a great start, holding at love in his first service game. With Sousa serving at one all, Raonic got the break to take the early 2-1 lead. It wasn't long before Milos opened up the lead with another break to go up 4-1. But in the next game, a string of errors by Milos gave Sousa a 0-40 lead and an opportunity to break back -- which he did on the second chance. Sousa followed that up with a convincing hold, giving the Portuguese crowd something to cheer about. But Raonic still had the single break advantage at this point. Milos got his game back on track and held at love for a 5-3 lead. After Sousa got into a dispute with the Umpire over a line call that went against him, Raonic quickly earned a couple of break points and converted the first one to take the set 6-3.

Things were still looking good for Milos on serve, hitting two aces and holding at love to start the second set. The same could not be said for Sousa, who never really had an easy service game. Sousa dropped serve in his opening game of the second set, giving Raonic the 2-0 lead. Milos kept on rolling, holding at love again to get to 4-1. Sousa was still having trouble on his serve and Raonic broke Sousa again, increasing the lead to 5-1. Milos was a little shaky serving for the match, and dropped serve for the first time in the second set. Luckily, Raonic would have another chance to serve out the match, and this time he would get the job done.

With the convincing win, Milos advances to the quarterfinals at the Estoril Open -- his first quarterfinals at an ATP clay court event. His opponent in the next round will be either No.4 seed Gilles Simon (FRA) or Carlos Berlocq (ARG). As I write this, Simon is currently leading 5-2 in the first set.

UPDATE: Gilles Simon def. Carlos Berlocq 6-2 6-1.

~~Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that Rogers Sportsnet will be covering the Estoril Open online or on TV. That's kind of a bummer. But there's always the internet...~~

UPDATE #2: It looks like Rogers Sportsnet will be carrying Milos' quarterfinal match on Friday, starting at (or not before) 11AM ET.

Good luck in the quarters, Milos!

-multi