Milos Raonic takes down Marcos Baghdatis in the opening round – If Stockholm Open 2011
Rated at number 29 in the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Rankings, 20-year-old Milos Raonic of Canada registered a hard-fought victory against the 47th ranked Cypriot, Marcos Baghdatis, in the opening round of the If Stockholm
Open on Tuesday evening.
The contest was played on the indoor hard courts of Stockholm, Sweden, with the sixth seed wrapping up the three-setter at 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 6-4, to make it to the second round of the ATP World Tour 250 tournament.
The enthralling contest witnessed merely one break point, which came from the sixth seeded Canadian in the final set. The competition remained evenly poised throughout, with the two players exchanging a number of assertive winners to get the better of one
another. The first two sets were decided in a tie breaker rounds, as none of the contestants succeeded in registering a serve break. Raonic took the advantage in the third set to dispose of the Cypriot out of the competition in a convincing manner.
It was Raonic’s 29th victory in the running ATP season and a much needed one as well. The 20-year-old has missed the most of the season due to his hip injury but has still managed to remain in the Top-30. The Canadian used his phenomenal serve
as his primary weapon of destruction in the Tuesday’s contest. Raonic banged 73 per cent of his serve on target and reeled off 69 out of 84 first serve points to come out as the winner. The most eminent feature of his game was his lot of 22 cracking aces.
Baghdatis registered merely six aces in the game and followed his opponent with 52 first serve points in the matchup to finish on the losing side in the end.
Both contestants fought tooth and nail in the opening two sets but none of them could break his opponent’s serve. They spilt the first two sets among them and Raonic finally stung the only break point of the matchup in the fifth game of the third set to
get his required momentum. He held his lead till the end to conclude a hard-earned victory at 6-4, getting through to the second round of the tournament.
Raonic, who won an indoor hard-court tournament in February at San Jose, next goes on to face the unseeded German competitor, Philipp Petzschner, for a place in the quarter-finals of the tournament. The German contestant outplayed Lukasz Kubot of Poland,
in straight sets, 6-2, 7-5, in the opening round clash on Monday to move into the second round of the If Stockholm Open.
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