Teenager De Minaur puts Raonic out in Brisbane

Former champion Milos Raonic lost in straight sets to 18-year-old Alex De Minaur in a second-round upset at the Brisbane International.

Raonic struggled to find rhythm with his usually booming serve in a 6-4, 6-4 loss to the Australian wildcard entry.

De Minaur pressured Raonic with relentless service returns, made just one unforced error and only dropped serve once – whenservingforthematch at 5-2 – en route to the biggest win of his career.

The victory put De Minaur into a quarter-final against American qualifier Michael Mmoh, who upset No 8 seed Mischa Zverev 6-2, 5-7, 6-4.

“It’s going to take a while for me to believe what’s happened just now,” De Minaur said.

Raonic was playing his first match since October after taking time out to deal with injuries that also ruled him out of the US Open last year, when his ranking slipped to No 24.

“Heavily disappointed,” he said. “I could have served better. I could have moved a little better. I could have found my way to the net a little bit better.

“I sort of played into his comfort zone. I didn’t do enough to pull him out of it. I wasn’t consistent enough and that’s sort of what cost me.”

Raonic saved double break points in his first two service games in the second set, but was finally broken in the fifth game when De Minaur challenged a call on a second serve, got it overturned to win the point on a doublefault, and won the next two points on the back of some impressive returns.

De Minaur broke again in the seventh game and, after missing the chance to close out in the eighth, the former Wimbledon junior finalist held his composure to close out.

Nick Kyrgios was the first into the men’s quarter-finals, overcoming a knee problem to outlast fellow Australian Matthew Ebden 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5), 6-2.

He will now face former Brisbane International runner-up Alexandr Dolgopolov, who beat Horacio Zeballos 6-1, 6-2.