Thaindian News

Chennai, Jan 4 (IANS) Playing well within himself, talented Canadian Milos Raonic, the fourth seed, brushed aside Victor Hanescu 6-1, 6-4, in just 74 minutes to enter the third round of the Aircel Chennai Open here Wednesday.

The 21-year old Raonic, a product of the Canadian National Training Centre in Montreal, showed a lot of fluency and grace in his movements despite his six feet, five-inch frame that also helped him deliver nine aces, six of them in the second set.

Raonic also displayed a pleasing touch that often wrong-footed the 30-year old Hanescu, an inch taller than his opponent, but a step slower.

Clearly, the Romanian’s best days are behind him as he was ranked 26 in July 2009, but thereafter fell away and a dodgy knee furthered affected his playing career.

Raonic broke the Romanian in the second and sixth games to take the first set in mere 27 minutes. Hanescu showed some fight in the second set that went with serves until 3-3 when he was broken in the seventh. The break of serve proved crucial as Raonic went on to close the match that lasted 74 minutes with an ace.

Raonic, who moved to Canada from Montenegro when he was just three years old, enjoyed a meteoric rise last year when he jumped from 152 to 25 by May, but a two month break following a hip surgery saw him finish the season at 31. However, his performances earned him the ATP Newcomer of the Year award.

At his peak last year, Raonic won his maiden tour title at San Jose where he thundered 58 aces as he tamed the then World No.9 Fernando Verdasco in the final. Those big serves, though not much in evidence Wednesday, were still good enough to carry him through.

“I am happy that everything I had worked on during off-season came together tonight. I just stayed with myself and did not start flat-footed,” said Raonic after the match that he thought he played reasonably well, but would like to improve.

“I have been focusing on my returns, especially the second ball after the serve to keep my opponent under pressure. I know I have strong legs, but am working on developing my upper body strength,” he added.

Raonic goes up against Israel’s Dudi Sela who came through against Frenchman Benoit Paire 4-6, 6-2, 6-4. The 26-year old Sela had scalped sixth seeded Fabio Fognini in the first round.

The results:

Singles - 2nd round: Milos Raonic (CAN) bt Victor Hanescu (ROM) 6-1, 6-4; Dudi Sela (ISR) bt Benoit Paire (FRA) 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Doubles (1st round): Juan Sebastian Cabal / Robert Farah (COL) bt Alexander Kudryavtsev (RUS) / Olivier Rochus (BEL) 6-4, 6-4; 2-Rajeev Ram / Scott Lipsky (USA) bt Sriram Balaji / Jeevan Nedunchezhian (IND) 7-5, 6-4; Fabio Fognini (ITA) / Igor Zelenay (SVK) bt Johan Brunstrom (SWE) / Ivan Dodig (CRO) 6-4, 7-5; Nicolas Almagro / Pere Riba (ESP) bt Julian Knowle (AUT) / Michael Kohlmann (GER) 6-7 (4), 6-4, 10-4; 4-Jonathan Erlich / Andy Ram (ISR) bt Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash / Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) 6-2, 6-1; Andreas Beck (GER) / Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) bt Phlipp Marx (GER) / Adil Shamasdin (CAN) 6-1, 7-5.