Milos Raonic wins his 7th career ATP Tour title at the St. Petersburg Open

Joao Sousa, a game 26-year-old from Portugal, put more pressure on Canadian Milos Raonic than any of his previous opponents at the St. Petersburg Open this week.

But it wasn't enough; Raonic took the final 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. It is his seventh career title on the ATP Tour, his first since winning in Washington, D.C. in August, 2014, and his first in Europe.

In the end, Raonic went 2-for-12 on break-point opportunities, while Sousa went 1-for-10. To their credit, though, it was largely not a matter of wasting opportunities. Both players played extremely well when they were in trouble, making first serves for the most part and hanging tough.

For Raonic, obviously, the big serve is a huge advantage in those situations. But although he out-aced Sousa 22 to zero, the two had roughly the same success rate on each other's serves.

Sousa challenged him, standing right near the baseline to try to return. But there wasn't much he could do when Raonic's bombs were coming in over 230 km/hour, which they did on a regular basis.

Raonic failed to convert on seven break-point chances in the first few games of the second set. As often happens, Sousa then broke to take a 3-1 lead, and ran out that set to force a decider.

An untimely double-fault by Sousa gifted a break to Raonic in the opening game of the third set. And that was pretty much that even though the Portuguese player still had his chances. He had a shot right away, down 0-2, but up 15-40 on Raonic's serve. Denied.

At 1-3, he had 15-40 on Raonic's serve again. Raonic's responses included 233, 232 and 232 km/hour on the serve. Denied again. Fortunately, no centre linesmen or women were injured in Raonic's run to the title.

Here's what he had to say in a rather awkward promotional post-match interview.

Back home in Canada, Raonic's Davis Cup teammate Frank Dancevic wasn't as fortunate. His 19-match winning streak on the back-to-basics Futures circuit came to an end against Sanam Singh, an Indian who played college tennis at the University of Virginia.

Dancevic faced Singh twice during his run of four tournaments on Canadian soil, beating him twice in straight sets (including in the final last week at the Aviva Centre in Toronto).

But it was not to be; Dancevic fell 6-4, 6-2 to Singh in the final of a $15,000 tournament held indoors at the Mayfair Club in Markham, Ont.

Still, it was a great month for Dancevic, who turned 31 on Saturday. His ranking stood at No. 277 when he arrived in Calgary for the first of the four events. He ends it nearly 100 spots higher, at approximately No. 189 and with a needed boost to his match confidence.

Raonic will be idle next week before hitting Asia for big events in Beijing and Shanghai (a Masters 1000 event) where he certainly hopes to further improve his chances to make the ATP Tour finals.