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Milos Raonic wins 1st official match of 2014, advances at Australian Open
MELBOURNE – Even though it’s aeady mid-January, Tuesday’s first-round match at the Australian Open was actually Milos Raonic’s first real match of the new tennis season.
The Hopman Cup event he played across the country in Perth with countrywoman Genie Bouchard was only an exhibition event. And he didn't play last week.
So the 23-year-old’s season debut – a situation that will test a player’s nerves at the best of times – came on the hottest day most players have seen in a long time, with the wind gusting any which way and a host of other potential distractions.
Despite a hiccup in the third set, Raonic came through surprisingly well in a 7-6(2), 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 victory over Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain.
“It was tricky because it’s the first official match I’m playing, and it’s in a Grand Slam. You don’t expect you’re going to go out there feeling comfortable,” he said. “You hope you can find your way, and I was able to do so.”
Raonic said the wind was far worse than the heat – even though he played with a hat on as a concession to the conditions, something he really doesn’t like doing.
He coughed up his serve twice in the first set, which threw him a little bit even if he managed to win the set in a tiebreaker in the end.
Beyond that, Raonic’s only other misstep was a poor game on his serve at 4-4 in the third set, when he was broken on his own double-fault.
“The only thing I was thinking was to just figure out the serve aspect. I wasn’t focused as much on how the serve was being delivered, but on getting my rhythm back because I was a little bit all over the place, pretty much through the whole first three sets.”
Raonic did manage to incorporate some of the variety he and coach Ivan Ljubicic worked on during the offseason. He sliced some second-serve returns, threw in a few serve-and-volley plays, changed speeds on balls, varied his serve well – all in an effort to throw off the timing of opponents who by now expect him to bring the heat all the time.
“I felt I did it well in the second set. (Gimeno-Traver) gave me a few free points and I felt like maybe I overdid it at one point and needed to step back, take time away from him, and pound a little – mostly through the middle, because of the conditions out there,” Raonic said.
So he went back to basics Raonic for a little while and relocated his groove. Gimeno-Traver really couldn’t get any read on the serve at all, not knowing if he would be seeing 225 km/h heat or a kicker to his backhand that threatened to bounce nearly over his head.
The fourth set was a technicality.
The two players dealt with the conditions well (unlike Raonic's countryman Frank Dancevic, who passed out during his match against Benoit Paire of France later in the day). One ballboy, though, wasn't as fortunate. The match had to be stopped for 5-10 minutes when, overcome by the conditions, he just crumpled to the court in the first set.
Later, a ballgirl was hit in the arm by a Gimeno-Traver serve and also had to leave. While the irony there is that the Spaniard isn't nearly the server Raonic is, he took some of the blame - he whiffed on the 198 km/hour delivery, and that probably thew the ballgirl off.
Raonic now faces veteran Romanian Victor Hanescu in the second round Thursday.
