Milos Raonic rallies past Jeremy Chardy into the last 16 – BNP Paribas Masters 2012
Seeded 14th in the draw, Canada’s Milos Raonic ended his losing streak by coming back after dropping the opener to beat the world number 34, Jeremy Chardy of France, in three sets 6-7(4), 7-6(4), 6-3 in the round two
of the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris. This indoor hard court tournament is the last ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event of the season.
Raonic did not have good results in the last two weeks, as he lost in the second round of Shanghai Rolex Masters and the opening round of Valencia Open. He is currently at the 13th place in the Race to London and can
still qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals if he reaches at least the title match at this event and other contenders lose early.
Coming back to his match against Chardy, both players served splendidly well in the opening set, as they did not drop their serve till the end, equalising the proceeding at 6-6 and taking it to a tie-breaker. The Frenchman lost
the first two points to trail 0-2 but then he took over the charge to clinch it 7-6(4).
Proceedings of the second set also went in a similar manner to the first, as Chardy and Raonic held their serve in all the 12 games, taking the score to 6-6 and forcing a tie-breaker. This time, the French player started with a
3-0 lead but then Raonic bounced back to win seven of the subsequent nine points and seal it 7-6(4).
Third successive tie-breaker was looking to be in store, as the Canadian and Frenchman won their serve in the opening seven games to take the score to 4-3 in favour of Raonic. However, the 21-year-old earned a breakthrough in the
eighth and made the most of it to win 6-3.
Commenting on the contest, the Canadian said afterwards, “It was a tough win, I had to fight. I was not as comfortable as I could have been with my ground strokes, so I had to rely on my serve. I’m forward to playing Querrey again
after losing to him at Wimbledon.”
Raonic will play American player, Sam Querrey, for a place in the quarter-finals.
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