Raonic Reaches Third Round In Monte Carlo

Written by: Staff on 12th April 2011

Raonic Reaches Third Round In Monte Carlo

epa02684141 Milos Raonic of Canada returns the ball to Ernests Gulbis of Latvia during their second round match at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters tennis tournament in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France, 12 April 2011. EPA/CHRISTOPHE KARABA |

After earning his first career ATP clay court victory on Sunday, Milos Raonic (Thornhill, ON) continued his strong play at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, reaching the third round of a Masters 1000 event for the second time this season. He also reached the third round at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells earlier this season.

Today, Raonic took on world no. 30 Ernests Gulbis of Latvia. Both players committed quite a few unforced errors in the first set and didn’t engage in many long rallies. After trading service breaks early in the set, Raonic broke his opponent for a second time at 3-3 and went on to take a one set lead. The level of play improved in the second set with both players hitting some impressive winners. Raonic got the first break of the frame at 4-4 and held three match points on his serve at 5-4, 40-0, but was unable to convert. He rebounded quickly to break Gulbis at love to lead 6-5 and successfully served out the match on his second attempt to secure a 6-4, 7-5 victory in just over 90 minutes.

The 20-year-old Canadian will play his third round match on Thursday against the winner of the all-Spanish encounter between Feliciano Lopez and fourth-seeded David Ferrer. Ferrer ended Raonic’s Cinderella run at the Australian Open in the fourth round in January.