Raonic, Pospisil advance to third round
Six-time Miami Open champ Djokovic ousted as elbow problems persist
KEY BISCAYNE, FLA. Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., advanced to the third round of the Miami Open on Friday with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Mikael Ymer.
Raonic made good on three of four break points while fending off a pair of break points for the wild-card entry from Sweden. The Canadian had 16 aces in the 68-minute match. His next opponent will be Diego Schwartzman of Argentina, who topped Nicolas Jarry of Chili 6-3, 6-1.
Raonic is ranked 25th by the ATP while Schwartzman is 16th. Raonic won their only previous meeting in two sets last year in Brisbane.
Canadian Vasek Pospisil also advanced to the third round after he beat Andrey Rublev of Russia 7-6, 6-4. Pospisil’s next opponent will be Marin Cilic on Sunday.
In women’s doubles play, Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., and American partner Sloane Stephens were eliminated 4-6, 6-4, 10-6 by Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the round of 32.
Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic’s 16-match Key Biscayne winning streak ended, and his struggle to come back from an elbow injury continued. Djokovic lasted barely an hour at a tournament he has won six times, losing his opening match Friday to Benoit Paire, 6-3, 6-4.
The defeat was Djokovic’s third in a row. He returned from a sixmonth injury absence at the Australian Open and lost in the fourth round, and was upset two weeks ago at Indian Wells by Taro Daniel, a 109th-ranked qualifier.
“I’m trying, but it’s not working,” Djokovic said. “Obviously, I’m not feeling great when I’m playing this way. Of course I want to be able to play as well as I want. Just it’s impossible at the moment. That’s all.”
Djokovic sat out the last half of 2017 because of problems with his racket-swinging arm, saying it had been bothering him for more than a year. He was sidelined again after this year’s Australian Open and said he had a “small medical intervention” on his elbow.
Against the 47th-ranked Paire, Djokovic dropped serve four times, returned poorly and had difficulty anticipating drop shots.
In women’s play, Naomi Osaka’s breakthrough winning streak ended with a loss to No. 4-seeded Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-2. Osaka said began feeling ill before the match but didn’t want to retire after upsetting eight-time champion Serena Williams in the first round. The 20-year-old Osaka is ranked a career-high 22nd and won her first career title last week at Indian Wells.