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

Raonic Begins Title Defense in San Jose With Win

Milos Raonic defeated Tobias Kamke (GER) in the second round of the SAP Open last night, 6-2 7-6(7).

It was about 2AM here in Newfoundland when Andy Roddick pushed his match with Denis Kudla to a third set. At that point, I knew I couldn't stay up to watch the Raonic vs Kamke match live. So I can't really comment on how the knee looked, but the stats look promising. Milos broke Kamke twice in the first set and hit seven aces without giving up a single double fault.

Raonic failed to save the lone break point he faced during the second set (the only one he faced during the match), but he was ultimately able to close it out after falling behind in the tiebreak. Milos also hit eleven aces against three double faults in the second set, with a couple of those aces coming at a crucial time in the breaker.

UPDATE ON THE KNEE INJURY - Here, in Raonic's own words, is the official status of the knee issue that kept him from participating in the final day of Davis Cup:

"It was bad luck last week," Raonic told TENNIS.com in San Jose. “After we lost to doubles I went to have an echography [in Vancouver] and I was told I had four-millimeter tear in the tendon and it was month-long recovery. I was told that if I played on Sunday it could completely snap and I’d be out for eight to 12 months. So it was a no-brainer not to play. So I spoke to my doctor in Spain and I came here because I knew the services were really good at the Stanford Medical Clinic. I did an MRI and I was told it was just misplaced fluid instead of a tear and it was just showing tendonitis and I could play through, it won’t get any worse. It was little a disheartening because I was in the dark and I wish I could have played. If I knew I wasn’t taking a risk, I would have played Tsonga. I was sore, but I knew if I could take a pain killer, I could probably have played through the pain." [source: Tennis.com]

Click here to listen to Milos' post-match interview.

According to the schedule, Raonic will not have to play his next match until Friday morning. His third round opponent has yet to be decided. Milos will face either [6] Kevin Anderson (RSA) or Matthew Ebden (AUS), whose match will be decided later this afternoon.

Here is a picture of Raonic signing autographs after the match in his bright yellow shirt (courtesy of @SAPSponsers):

Here is a little Q&A from twitter with Milos conducted the day before his match with Kamke: