Raonic Notches First Ever Main Draw Win at Roland Garros « Milos Raonic

28May/12Off

Raonic Notches First Ever Main Draw Win at Roland Garros

Milos Raonic defeated Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo in the first round of the French Open today, 6-4 6-2 6-2. He will face American Jesse Levine in the second round later this week.

Raonic got off to a sluggish start in this match. He had to save several break points throughout the majority of the first set. The serve percentage was abysmal at both ends of the match, finishing with 50% overall. While Ramirez Hidalgo seemed to be the better player during the first set, the match turned dramatically in Raonic's favour when he got the first break of serve. He took a 5-4 lead and served out the set without any trouble. From then on, Ramirex Hidlago almost completely went away. It was all Raonic in the final two sets as he cruised to victory and was rarely challenged along the way.

Since the match was not played on a TV court, there was no way to stream it or watch it live. I had to rely on the live score tracker for updates. View the stats here.

This was Raonic's first win in the main draw at Roland Garros. He lost to Michael Berrer in the first round last year.

Milos' second round match with Jesse Levine won't be played until Wednesday at the earliest. Levine is currently ranked No. 131 and defeated Benjamin Becker in the first round, winning in straight sets. We'll have to wait until the order of play is released to see if he'll be on a show court this time.

-multi

Posted by multiformous

Filed under: milos raonic, results Comments Off

Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) ( subscribe to comments on this post )

Robert
May 29th, 2012 - 06:05

Thanks for both comments. I didn’t see the match either. If any is interested by Stephanie Myles’ comments who is at Roland Garros, you can find it here : http://sports.nationalpost.com/2012/05/28/milos-raonic-gets-on-a-roll-early-at-french-open/

There are a few quotes by Milos. I kept that one which shows his fighting spirit :”“One thing that I’ve changed this year — I don’t do it a lot — but I still stay in games after 40-love.”(the match turning point). Milos says also he has not been playing for a while, so obviously he needs some time to get back to top shape. I suppose his first goal is grass season, but he is going to do well at the French Open.

Two final remarks :
1 – He did very well at the net ! That’s great ! One day, he is going to be a great net player, as Sampras, I am sure !
2 – Court 17 was crowded to watch Milos ! Please, Roland Garros’ organisers move him to bigger courts in future ! But good to see he starts to be well known and appreciated by French crowd !

PS : a good ambassador to French made Lacoste line too, I thought, classic and modern, at the same time ! Lacoste at the French Open, it rings a bell, doesn’t it ?
wacb
May 28th, 2012 - 21:20

Some good commentary from Tomaso, who posted on the last article but it probably fits better on this one :

Milos won over Hidalgo in straight sets — we followed it via “live scores”. Milos’ first serve was finding its target only 50% of the time, but was effective (84%) when in, and backed up well by second serve (63%). Unforced errors 34, but more than balanced by 47 winners, indicating a good aggressive approach for Milos, which can only pay off long term, as errors turn into winners. Receiving points 42%, compared to Hidalgo’s 26%; so Milos “did the job” on service game even with first serve not working particularly well; but won he the match with his return game, which I think indicates real progress in building a balanced game. Particularly impressive in that regard: 17 points won out of 19 approaches to net.
Next up will be Jesse Levine (ATP#131) — born in Canada, moved to USA at 13; has not had a particularly good year. Should be an easier match for Milos, especially if he can get his serve back on track.