Milos Raonic defeats Yuichi Sugita in opening round – Rakuten Open 2011
Milos Raonic, Canadian world number thirty, made a magnificent come back to win the 1st round match at the 2011 Rakuten Open on Tuesday, 4th October, against the local lad, Yuichi Sugita, ranked world No.175.
It took the 20-year-old two hours and twelve minutes before he could bash the Japanese to win the match 6-7(4), 6-3, 7-6(1) and qualify into the 2nd stage.
Initiating the first game of the match, Sugita fired up the opening serve and rolled down the scoreboard, 1-0. Raonic followed the Japanese world No.175, and levelled up the scores at 1-1 and switched the serve back. With the two
winning a game each next, both players ignited as they broke each other in back-to-back games, 3-3.
With the set boiling up now, Sugita served next and took out game 7, however, could not break away to get into the lead. Equalling up every time the Japanese went for a gap, Raonic stayed on the Japanese tail to level up the scores
at every instant. Finally the set stuck into a tiebreaker.
The Canadian world No.30 was hoping to push his rival back and grab an easy win over the lower ranked player, however, he witnessed a lower ranked unmatched player talking away the first set with mere difficulty. The 23-year-old
ousted the Canadian world No.30 pocketing the first set and taking the lead, 7-6(4).
However, what seemed like a winning deal for the Japanese, soon spiralled out of control. With the 20-year-old Canadian opening up for the 2ndset first game, Raonic capitalized over his counterpart winning game 1 and
taking the lead. However, he was levelled up soon, game 2, as Sugita blistered his first win of the set and switch the serve.
Turning the tables on his side, Raonic made his mood as he serve-broke-served next to lead the set 4-1. Serving next, Sugita did cut the lead to 2-4, however, the gap was too much to cover up then. Serving out two out of the three
games played next, the mesmerizing 20-year-old Canadian levelled up the match scores 1-1, winning the 2nd set 6-3.
With the decider set on its way, the Japanese world no.175 served out the first game followed by the world No.30, Raonic, levelling up next. Winning games of respective serves, the two pulled off winning games one after the other
levelling up at 2-2, 3-3, 4-4 and then at 5-5.
With the set eventually ending up in a tiebreaker, Sugita served first to open up the tie break game. Raonic, world No.30, thrashed the Japanese lower ranked challenger out of the court as he mustered away winning the tiebreak
7-1 and bagging the set 7-6(1) to win the decider and the match.
With the young Canadian blowing away his challengers and making a strong mark, he now steps up in round 2 of the Rakuten Open, an ATP Tour 500 event, to play the winner of the match between the top seed and the world No.2 Rafael
Nadal and Go Soeda of Japan.
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