Milos Raonic downs Alejandro Falla to move to the second round – Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell 2012
Milos Raonic, seeded 11th in the draw, faced some resistance from Alejandro Falla of Colombia, before beating him in straight sets 6-4, 7-6(3) in the first round at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell in Spain on Monday.
It took the Canadian one hour and 41 minutes to prevail over his opponent.
Raonic and Falla could not break each other in the first eight games of the opening set, squaring off the score at 4-4. The Canadian hit a couple of blistering returns to win Falla’s serve, capitalising on it to triumph 6-4.
The 21-year-old gave mixed performance, as he pounded four aces but kept his first serve percentage at just 41, converting amazingly 11 of the 12 of them into points. However, he succeeded in clinching just 10 of the 17 second
delivery points. The Canadian did not provide Falla any chance to break and availed one of the six of his own in the opener.
Raonic made an early strike in the second set to move ahead 1-0 but the Colombian hit back immediately to level the score at 1-1. None of the two players managed to break the other during the rest of the proceedings, taking it
to 6-6 and forcing a tie-breaker. Raonic dropped just three points and captured it 7-6(3).
The Canadian improved his overall performance on serve in the second set, as he smashed three aces and 64 percent of the first deliveries. He bagged 19 of the 27 first and 10 of the 15 second serve points. The right-hander was
unable to save one of the four break points he faced and succeeded in converting the only one he received.
With this win, Raonic improved his win/loss record to 18-4 in this year. The Canadian made the best possible start in this season, as he upset the then world number nine, Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia, in a three set thriller 6-7(4),
7-6(4), 7-6(4) in the final to capture the Aircel Chennai Open title.
He was beaten by former world number one, Lleyton Hewitt, in four sets 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(5), 3-6 in the Australian Open third round. However, he did not lose confidence and went on to grab his second title of the season at SAP Open,
toppling Denis Istomin in straight sets 7-6(3), 6-2 in the title match.
Raonic will play either Igor Andreev of Russia or Argentinean, Diego Junqueira in the second round.
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