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

Canada and France split opening singles rubbers

In the first singles rubber of the Davis Cup World Group tie, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga dismissed Vasek Pospisil in straight sets. Milos Raonic returned the favour against Julien Benneteau, also winning in straight sets.

Canada and France are now tied with one point each heading into Saturday's crucial doubles rubber. This is exactly where Canada wanted to be after the first day. Pospisil was a huge underdog in his match against Tsonga, who is the "number two player outside the top four". The pressure was always going to be on Raonic to come up with the goods and keep things on even terms. With Daniel Nestor playing in the doubles rubber, it is a very real possibility that Canada could have the lead going into the final day of the tie.

Pospisil vs. Tsonga

The young Canadian was simply overmatched. There is little else to say. Pospisil felt his serve let him down in the match, but regardless of how he was serving Tsonga was still a clear favourite. Jo-Wilfried's serve and forehand were as powerful as ever as and he looked to be in top form as he zipped around the court making brilliant returns from very tricky places. Pospisil came up with some big wins to almost single-handedly get Canada to this World Group tie, but he had almost no chance in this match. It ended 6-1 6-3 6-3 in France's favour.

Raonic vs. Benneteau

Milos came out like gangbusters to start this match breaking Benneteau on his first service game. The entire first set was all Raonic. Not to suggest that Benneteau was playing poorly, because he wasn't. He was hitting the ball well and fighting for every point. Raonic was just too much to handle. The Canadian put the first set away easily after getting an insurance break.

Benneteau was able to stay with Raonic throughout most of the second and third sets, but in both cases Milos was able to come up a late break of serve to put the set on his racqeut. In addition to hitting over 20 aces, Raonic was almost unstoppable when he got his first serve in play. He rarely lost a point on it. Benneteau played a squeaky clean match which forced Milos to work extra hard on the return in the latter stages of their rubber. In doing so, Raonic demonstrated just how much effort he has put into his movement and the return of serve. The improvement is clear. Milos won it convincingly in straight sets, 6-2 6-4 7-5. It was quite a performance in front of a very vocal and enthusiastic Canadian crowd.

The doubles rubber will likely be the swing match for the tie. Whatever the outcome, it certainly sets up a huge fourth round singles rubber between Raonic and Tsonga.

-multi

Bonus update Saturday Morning: Here are some thumbnails from the first two rubbers (Day 1) from DavisCup.com (Tsonga, Raonic, Pospisil, and Benneteau).  Click on them to go to the originals (photos by Antoine Couvercelle):

Arash Madani snapped and tweeted a pic of a nice hockey jersey in Vancouver today.  Click on the thumbnail below to see the original tweet and 640 x 480 photo.  (I think he needs a new, higher-tech mobile phone)

Somehow, I'm still a bigger fan of the guy in a similar jersey in this photo:

Milos Raonic accepting a personalized San Jose Sharks hockey Jersey and some good ol' Canadian maple syrup after winning the SAP Open 2011 - photo courtesy SAP Sponserships - http://www.SAPsponsorships.com

Milos will be playing in the SAP Open in San Jose, California again this week, starting off with a first round bye and an exhibition doubles match with John McEnroe, Gael Monfils, and Jack Sock on Monday night.

--wacb