Milos Raonic prevails over Paul-Henri Mathieu to advance to the last 32 – US Open 2012
Canadian number one, Milos Raonic, cruised to the last-32 stage at the Flushing Meadows for the first time in his career, as he defeated France’s Paul-Henri Mathieu in straight sets 7-5, 6-4, 7-6(4) in the second round of the US
Open in New York on Thursday.
Raonic is already the best tennis player produced by Canada in its history, gaining a high ranking which was never done by any of the contenders of his country before.
Coming back to this second round clash, both players made a steady start, as they held their serve in the first 10 games to equalise the score at 5-5. Raonic struck at that moment to take a 6-5 lead and made full use of his advantage
to win 7-5.
Second set was the shortest among the three, as Raonic and Mathieu could go with the serve in just the opening four games to take the score to 2-2. The Canadian grabbed a breakthrough later on and made the most of it to triumph
6-4.
There was an extraordinary serving display from both players in the third set, as they did not allow each other to strike till the end, levelling the score at 6-6 and forcing a tie-breaker. Mathieu made a good start by taking a
2-0 lead but he could not sustain his advantage, losing seven of the next nine points and going down 6-7(4).
Raonic required two hours and 10 minutes to post this win over his opponent.
The Canadian was partially satisfied with his performance and accepted that he needed improvement in some departments of the game, especially the return of serve.
The 21-year-old said while taking to the media people at the end of his match, "Much better, as far as the basics are concerned. I still need to do quite a few things better. The two breaks I got, I Played two good points and he
sort of gifted me two of them. I didn't do that well on my return games. I was not doing enough with the ball."
Raonic will lock horns with the former world number four, James Blake, in the third round.
On playing Blake, the Canadian added, "I played James before, about two years ago. But it's more about (him) adjusting to me than myself adjusting to him. I do feel good about my game, I'm getting better and better. I now have
two days to get even better."
In their only previous meeting, Raonic defeated Blake in the round of 16 of the SAP Open last year.
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