RAONIC LOOKS SOLID IN RETURN AGAINST GOFFIN
Canadian veteran wins, while Shapovalov, Auger-Aliassime drop their doubles opener
Milos Raonic wasn’t sure, exactly, how his opening match at the 2018 Rogers Cup was going to unfold.
The 27-year-old quickly demonstrated on Monday night at the Aviva Centre that there was no need for worry.
Raonic, in his first appearance since injuring his right leg at Wimbledon, was dominant against David Goffin on centre court at York University, disposing of his higher-ranked opponent 6-3, 6-4.
“Overall, it was a very good performance as a first performance here,” Raonic said after the match, which took 73 minutes.
“Mentally, I was in the right state of mind the whole way through and I was very disciplined with myself.”
Crucial for Raonic was his manner of business in the opening game of the first set. He didn’t give up a point while serving, more or less setting the tone for the rest of the evening.
“If you can start off well — people know I have a very good serve — it sends the message across (with the opponent thinking) that, ‘Hey, this might not be that comfortable in terms of returning, I’m not going to have a lot of opportunities,’” Raonic said.
“It’s important to be on top of it from the start, to be efficient and send that message across.”
To end the first set, Raonic was down Love-40 while serving, but roared back to win with an ace. By the time he ended the tournament for Belgium’s Goffin, ranked No. 11 in the world, Raonic had delivered 13 aces and won all 27 of his first-serve points.
Still, happy as Raonic might have been with his play overall, some of the details ate at him.
“The way I was aggressive from the baseline, I hit my forehand well,” Raonic said. “It’s something we spent these last two weeks working on.
“I think I can still serve much better. I don’t think I necessarily served particularly well, so I’ll take the time to work on some things (on Tuesday).”
The victory by Raonic, ranked No. 29, came after some upsets earlier in the day, and it followed fellow Canadian Peter Polansky’s win against Matthew Ebden.
Jack Sock of the United States, ranked No. 19 in the world and seeded 13th in the tournament, lost 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to qualifier Daniil Medvedev of Russia. David Ferrer of Spain, ranked No. 69, lost 7-6 (5), 6-4 to qualifier Bradley Klahn of the U.S., and two other qualifiers, Ilya Ivashka and Pierre-Hughes Herbert, also advanced.
The final match of the day saw Canadian Vasek Pospisil lose 6-4, 6-3 to world No. 20 Borna Coric of Croatia.
After the Raonic match, Tennis Canada and Rogers Cup organizers held a ceremony for Anne Marie D’Amico, who was among the 10 people killed in the van attack in Toronto in April. D’Amico was a longtime volunteer at the tournament in various capacities and members of her family were in attendance; a scholarship in her name will be awarded to a ball kid in both Toronto and Montreal.
Raonic spent the past several weeks preparing for this event and was in the zone.
“It was nice to have that freedom of just training without a deadline,” Raonic said. “It was the first time in a long time that I was really able to put in some time without any physical hindrance. I just had to make sure that after Wimbledon my leg was healed.
“Everything went well. I didn’t know how things were going to play out (on Monday night). I think when you don’t play for a while you sort of have a little bit more stress because you don’t know what you’re doing well and what you’re not.
“It’s very different what you’re doing well in practice and what you’re going to step up and do well in the match. So I’m thankful that I did the things that I wanted to do well.”
CANADIAN DUO OUT
In tough, but intimidated against a couple of savvy foes?
“Not at all,” Denis Shapovalov said after he and fellow Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime lost their doubles match against Novak Djokovic and Kevin Anderson 6-3, 6-2 on Monday night.
“We let it slip a bit. Our game was there, but we weren’t intimidated at all. It’s good preparation.”
The Canadians, competing on a wild-card entry, indicated they would take the experience and use it in a positive manner. The match was played on the grandstand court before a packed house of 3,500. Both begin singles play Tuesday — Auger-Aliassime, playing on a wild card, will meet No. 18 Lucas Pouille of France during the day; Shapovalov, ranked No. 26 in the world, will meet No. 46 Jeremy Chardy of France at night. Both matches are scheduled to take place on centre court.