Raonic through to second round at Wimbledon « Milos Raonic

20Jun/11Off

Raonic through to second round at Wimbledon

Milos Raonic defeated Marc Gicquel (FRA) in straight sets today, 6-3 7-6(3) 6-3. That match took just 96 minutes.

Fabio Fognini pulled out of the main draw before his first round match with Raonic, so Marc Gicquel was awarded a spot in the main draw as a Lucky Loser. But he was a little unlucky to come up against the big serving Canadian, who was on fire throughout most of the match.

EDIT: See video of the match here and a video of what Milos had to say after the match here.

Here are the stats:

The serve wasn't the only aspect of Raonic's game that was working well today. The 25 aces certainly kept Gicquel at bay for most of the match, but the 1st serve points won by Milos was also key. Gicquel had only one chance to break, and it came at a crucial time in the second set. Had Gicquel converted that break point, he would have won the set and changed the entire trajectory of the match. But as is so often the case, Milos hauled out a huge serve to erase the break chance and won the second set tiebreak rather comfortably. Raonic then rode the early break in the third to victory, displaying some sound technique at the net and using the slice to great effect. Milos also didn't hesitate to serve-and-volley, recognizing that winning points on the grass involves more than just coming out on top in the baseline rallies.

Overall, it was a very promising performance by Milos and Wimbledon is taking notice. It was a quick match with few hiccups for Raonic, which will no doubt give him a lot of confidence heading into the second round. We're one step closer to the possible meeting with Nadal in the third round. Raonic will face Gilles Muller (LUX) in the second round, who defeated Tommy Haas (GER) in four sets today. Muller is ranked 98 in the world, and the two have yet to meet at the ATP level.

Hopefully the other Canadians can build on the strong showing from the Missile today.

-multi