Raonic completes home double

TORONTO: Milos Raonic posted a second Canadian victory on Monday, joining Peter Polansky in the second round of the ATP Toronto Masters.

Vasek Pospisil missed out on a local hat-trick in a night match as the Canadian lost to Croatian Borna Coric 6-4, 6-3 after a threehour afternoon rain interruption.

Former Wimbledon finalist Raonic, ranked 29th due to an injury plagued 2017, won in his first match since going out in the Wimbledon quarter-finals to John Isner a month ago.

Polansky reached the second round for a third straight year, upsetting Australian world number 52 Matt Ebden 7-6 (7-3), 6-4.

As in 2017, when Raonic ran into Roger Federer after winning his home opener, Polansky, who is ranked 121, will again face a Grand Slam champion, taking on 2014 US Open winner Marin Cilic, seeded sixth.

“It was tough, I was fortunate to find a way to win today,” Raonic said.

In other matches after the bad weather passed, 11th seed Diego Schwartzman crushed Kyle Edmund 6-1, 6-2, lone Brit in the field after the withdrawal of Andy Murray.

Jack Sock, who has not won a match since before Roland Garros more than two months ago, lost in the first round for a fourth straight event, going down 6-3, 36, 6-3 to Daniil Medvedev.

Benoit Paire reined in his fearsome temper to earn a straightforward first-round win after a costly outburst on court last week.

The volatile 55th-ranked Frenchman advanced over American Jared Donaldson 6-3, 6-4 to set up a showdown with top seed Rafael Nadal.

Nadal leads the draw with holder Alexander Zverev, the weekend champion in Washington, the second seed.

Federer is skipping the event during the week of his 37th birthday and will return next week in Cincinnati at his only scheduled tune-up event prior to the US Open.

Belarusian qualifier Ilya Ivashka extended his run of weekend success as he beat Japan’s Yuichi Sugita 6-2, 6-3. Pablo CarrenoBusta advanced when Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka retired after the first set.