Milos Raonic – Canada Fan Blog an (unofficial) blog about tennis and Canadian player Milos Raonic

Raonic Begins Comeback With A Win

Milos Raonic, in his first ATP Tour match since June, defeated Yuichi Sugita (JPN) in the first round of the Rakuten Japan Open, 6(4)-7 6-3 7-6(1).

This match did not appear to be streamed live anywhere online, so we were left with watching the live scores ticker to get an idea of how the match was playing out. Raonic seemed to have the edge early on, earning the first break of the match to go up 3-2 on his serve in the first. Sugita would immediately break back and take the set to a tiebreak. The Japanese wildcard jumped out to an early lead and eventually put the first set away.

Raonic would register the only break of serve in the second set converting a lone break point, later having to save one himself to maintain the lead. The third set was close. Raonic served extremely well in the final set, notching 7 aces and hitting 83% of his first serves. Neither player was able to earn a break chance, resulting in the set having to be decided in a tiebreak. Raonic dominated the breaker, emphatically closing out the match by nearly shutting Sugita out of the tiebreak.

One thing we can say for sure about the match is that Raonic was generally serving well. The first serve dipped slightly in the second, but he still managed to win that set by a single break. Raonic also a racked up a total of 16 aces, a promising sign on a hardcourt. Perhaps the key takeaway from this match is that Milos was able to rally from a set down to win in three sets. Compare this to his Davis Cup loss to Amir Weintraub where Raonic won the first set, only to lose the following three. It's hard to make a direct comparison between these matches since I wasn't able to watch the match with Sugita live, but it could be an indication that Raonic may have tried to come back a little too quickly for Davis Cup. Raonic says he's looking "forward to [the] challenge" of playing Nadal, and that it should be a good test for how the comeback is progressing.

The biggest comeback obstacle for Raonic is his opponent in the Round of 16: Rafael Nadal. We saw this coming when we first had a look at the draw, provided Milos was able to get through his first round match. Rafa had an easy time in his opener winning 6-3 6-2 over Go Soeda, another Japanese wildcard. Raonic vs Nadal: Tokyo Showdown - Part Deux will be played on Thursday, or more accurately, "tomorrow night" if you're in North America. Here is the order of play for "today".

We may have more luck watching the second round match, since there should be coverage streaming online by then. The only problem is accounting for the time zone difference. I wasn't able to stay up to "watch" the end of the match on live score ticker last night, and Raonic was first on court! It should be easier to get up for a match with actual video. It isn't very often you get to see Raonic take on the likes of Rafa Nadal.

-multi