Milos Raonic made a powerful return to the tour on the lawns of s-Hertogenbosch this week, however his first match since Indian Wells got here to an finish on Friday by the hands of Alex de Minaur on the Libema Open.
In a matchup of energy vs pace, it was the top-seeded Aussie who bought the higher hand, negating the Canadian’s large hitting and fixing his mighty serve sufficient occasions to assert a 7-5, 6-2 win.
Whereas Raonic did have eight aces and received 76 per cent of his first serve factors, he solely put 58 per cent of them in play and when he missed his first supply, de Minaur took benefit, profitable 76 per cent of the Canadian’s second serve factors. The Aussie managed to interrupt the mighty serve 4 occasions on seven break level possibilities.
De Minaur didn’t want a lot time to resolve the Raonic serve, going up love-40 within the fifth recreation and changing the third break level to get an early lead. Nonetheless, he couldn’t preserve the benefit, lacking a forehand handy the break proper again within the very subsequent recreation.
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Rain pressured them off the court docket for 2 and a half hours with the Aussie serving at 3-4.
Late within the set after the restart, Raonic had possibilities to steal the set with love-30 and love-40 leads on the Aussie’s serve. Nonetheless, between these video games de Minaur was capable of reap the benefits of his opening, curling a forehand passing shot up the road to interrupt for a 6-5 lead.
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Raonic had had an opportunity to interrupt again because the Aussie served for it however dedicated three straight unforced errors from triple break level up earlier than de Minaur closed out the opener.
By means of three video games within the second set, Raonic held a 2-1 lead. The remainder of the match was one-way visitors for the Aussie who now had learn on the Raonic serve and took full benefit of the Canadian’s second supply.
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At 2-2, Raonic despatched a forehand lengthy to give up a love break. The subsequent time he stepped as much as serve at 2-4, the Canadian was once more damaged to like. De Minaur completed the match having received the final 5 video games in a row.
Raonic made his return to the tour after a two-year absence at this identical occasion, dropping in spherical two to Jordan Thompson. He avenged that loss in spherical one this yr after which beat Roberto Bautista Agut in spherical two to achieve his second quarter-final of 2024.
This occasion was the primary for Raonic in 2024 that didn’t finish with an damage withdrawal.
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