Raonic takes early exit from Monte Carlo « Milos Raonic

16Apr/12Off

Raonic takes early exit from Monte Carlo

Albert Montanes defeated Milos Raonic in three sets in the first round of the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters, 6-2 3-6 6-3.

Raonic earned the first break point of the match at 1-2, but failed to convert it. During his next service game, Raonic followed up a double fault with a flurry of errors to hand Montanes the break and the lead. In typical Spanish clay courter fashion, Montanes was chasing everything down and putting nearly every ball back in play. He was certainly making Milos hit those extra shots. Raonic was looking unsure of himself and it wasn't long before Montanes secured the insurance break and served out the set with ease. Not only was Montanes playing well, but Raonic's first serve was at 50% for the set.

Raonic held to open the second set, but found himself in a bit of trouble again in his next service game after Montanes came up with some nice passing shots. Milos wasn't able to save both break points and dropped serve for the third time in the match. There was a glimmer of hope when Montanes was looking to consolidate the break and Raonic had two break points of his own at 15-40. Those chances quickly evaporated. After holding comfortably, Raonic was quickly rewarded with a 0-40 lead on Montanes next service game. It was a loose game from the Spaniard and now Milos was back in the match. From 1-3 down, Milos ran off five straight games to level the match at one set a piece.

While Raonic's serve had improved slightly during the second set, he was still struggling to start the third. He couldn't keep all that momentum going. Montanes got the break with Raonic serving at 2-3 after Milos slightly overhit a forehand that went wide. Raonic opted to change racquets before Montanes was to serve for the match. It didn't work -- Montanes held at love to win the match.

It was a disappointing loss for Raonic. The serve wasn't nearly effective enough and he made far too many forehand errors. For the majority of the match, Milos was in a funk while Montanes was flying high. It's not the most encouraging way to start off the clay court season. The ranking for Raonic will take a slight hit next week since he wasn't able to defend his R16 points from Monte Carlo last year.

Next up: Barcelona.

-multi

Posted by multiformous

Filed under: milos raonic, results Comments Off

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Robert
April 17th, 2012 - 11:33

Thanks for report. For once, I could follow the full match on the net. Obviously, something was not working with Milos’ game and he got nervous about it. A pity, because, in my view, he could have won, if he didn’t get worried all that lot with his own play. The second set showed that. But Milos is an attacker and he needs to dictate the game. Clay ask to be more patient sometimes. Usually, Milos learns quickly. I am confident for Barcelona. Go Milos !
- multiformous
  April 18th, 2012 - 10:50
  
  That’s a great point, Milos likes to be aggressive with the forehand and that’s not always easy to do on a clay court. His coach knows a thing or two about playing on clay so I’m sure he’ll be getting lots of pointers before Barcelona!
Mark Landmann
April 16th, 2012 - 22:15

thanks for keeping us, in the loop… I completely forgot about his match today, and I’d been looking forward to it. Shame we won’t get to see the Tipsarevic rematch.