Canada’s Raonic advances to 2nd round at Wimbledon
LONDON (CP) — Canada’s Milos Raonic is through to the second round at Wimbledon.
The Thornhill, Ont., product cruised to a 7-5, 6-0, 6-1 victory over Britain’s Liam Broady in first-round play at the All England Club on Monday.
Raonic, seeded 13th at the Grand Slam tournament despite his No. 32 ATP ranking, used his powerful serve to dispatch his opponent, firing 18 aces to Broady’s four.
He converted on 6-of-11 break points while winning all his service games.
Peter Polansky, also of Thornhill, lost his first-round match 6-2, 6-3, 7-6 (7) to Austria’s Dennis Novak earlier Monday.
Raonic’s Wimbledon future was called into question when he pulled out of the Queen’s Club grass-court tennis tournament with a right pectoral strain two weeks ago.
Raonic also missed the last Grand Slam when he sat out the French Open with an undisclosed injury.
Once No. 3 in the world, Raonic has seen his ranking plummet over the last couple of years because of a litany of injuries.
Canada’s top-ranked player, Richmond Hill, Ont., teen Denis Shapovalov at No. 26, opens his Wimbledon tournament today against France’s Jeremy Chardy.
Unseeded Vasek Pospisil, who hails from Vernon but resides in Vancouver, takes on Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan today, while Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., plays British wild-card Gabriella Taylor in her main-draw opener.
In other results from Monday, eight-time Wimbledon champ Roger Federer began his title defence in style at the All England Club, brushing aside Dusan Lajovic of Serbia 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 in 79 minutes on Centre Court.
However, Day 1 featured a few surprises, such as U.S. Open champion and French Open runner-up Sloane Stephens’ third first-round exit in the past five majors, and losses by No. 5 Elina Svitolina and No. 6 Grigor Dimitrov (to three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka).
Meanwhile, Serena Williams found herself in a bit of a jam against 105th-ranked Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands, down by a break in the second set on a windy afternoon. And then, a five-game run and 25 minutes later, Williams had completed a 7-5, 6-3 win.
“I have such high expectations of myself,” said Williams, whose 23 Grand Slam singles championships include seven at Wimbledon.
Williams is seeded 25th, even though her ranking is 181st after an extended absence. The 36-year-old American sat out the tournament last year while pregnant; she gave birth to a daughter in September and married Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian in November.
This is only Williams’ second major tournament in nearly 1 1/2 years. She returned at the French Open in May, and won three matches there before withdrawing with an injured pectoral muscle.
Williams has won 15 matches in a row at Wimbledon, a streak that encompasses titles in 2015 and 2016.
Her sister, five-time Wimbledon champion and 2017 finalist Venus, had far more trouble, slipping to the turf a couple times and barely moving on with a 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-1 win against Johanna Larsson of Sweden.