Top Canadians beat the heat
Raonic cruises to win, Shapovalov survives five-set marathon
NEW YORK— Canadian Milos Raonic felt he stepped up in the second round of the U.S. Open — and the scoreline indicates he did just that.
After an inconsistent performance in a four-set win over qualifier Carlos Berlocq to open the final Grand Slam of the year, the No. 25 seed downed Gilles Simon 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 on a hot and humid Wednesday at Flushing Meadows.
“Overall, I did things well and took care of my serve,” Thornhill’s Raonic said. “I was a lot more disciplined with myself. I wasn’t going up and down …”
Raonic had 17 aces to Simon’s none, and broke his opponent on three of six chances. The hard-serving Canadian improved to 5-1head-to-head with victories in all three of their hardcourt matches.
“He does a very good job of sort of throwing you out of the rhythm, where he plays very slow, sort of gets you to slow down your intentions and will sort of surprise you by taking the ball early,” Raonic said. “So I was happy that I was able to — in those important moments — just, you know, be patient.”
With temperatures around 35C, Raonic was happy to have a relatively quick match in two hours, six minutes.
Later, Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill went the distance against Andreas Seppi and pulled out a five-set victory to advance to the third round. Shapovalov, seeded 28th, found himself down two sets to one before coming back for the 6-4, 4-6, 5-7, 7-6 (2), 6-4 victory in three hours, 47 minutes against his 51st-ranked opponent.
“It was pretty crazy. Yeah, it was long. It was long and physical,” Shapovalov said. “Obviously I feel tired now. I’m lucky, I’m only 19 years old. I feel pretty good.”
He’ll play Wimbledon finalist Kevin Anderson next, and for the first time.
“Obviously he’s an unbelievable player,” said Shapovalov. “He’s made multiple Grand Slam finals. He’s no walk in the park. He’s going to be a tough opponent, tough to get a rhythm with him. Obviously he’s serving unbelievably huge.”
Raonic will face 2016 U.S. Open winner Stan Wawrinka, who missed the 2017 U.S. Open and is on a nine-match win streak at Flushing Meadows. Raonic has beaten Wawrinka just once in five meetings.
Also Wednesday, Canadian Daniel Nestor had his chance for a ninth career Grand Slam doubles title end in the first round. Nestor and American partner Bradley Klahn fell 6-3, 6-3 against Christian Harrison and Ryan Harrison.