Raspy Raonic races into third round of Australian Open

By Ian Ransom MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Battling a cold and loaded up with flu medicine, Milos Raonic showed his game was still in rude health as he eased past Gilles Muller 6-3 6-4 7-6(4) to reach the third round of the Australian Open on Thursday. The big-serving Canadian, a semi-finalist at Melbourne Park last year, was clinical on a sun-bathed Margaret Court Arena, firing 21 aces and 56 winners to despatch the Luxembourg left-hander in a tick under two hours. Raonic is rarely known for his vocal outbursts but the serene 26-year-old had little choice in the matter, his voice barely croaking above a whisper in the post-match interview. "I started feeling a little bit of a cough, but I didn't think much of it, two days ago after my match, right before bed," he told reporters after setting up a tough clash with the indefatigable Frenchman Gilles Simon. "Yesterday I was okay. I practised normally and everything. I thought, Okay, maybe I'm on the way up from this. "Then this morning, I felt pretty bad waking up. Didn't warm up much. Just came out with the sort of idea of put everything into the match, try to solve it, understand the importance of the mental side of things in that situation." Muller, a serve-volleying journeyman, celebrated his maiden ATP title by winning the Sydney International warm-up earlier this month and battled gamely to take the third set into a tiebreak where he saved a match point. But Raonic closed it out on the second of three when Muller sprayed an attempted winner into the tram-lines. Raonic will hope his cold can ease in time for Simon, who can opponents ragged with his frenetic, all-court game. "He's going to be there really trying to get me to play at his speed, his rhythm," said Raonic. "Obviously he tries to slow things down, play low. I won't have the opportunity to get too many swings at many shots. "I've got to serve well and I've got to be aggressive and I've got to take it to him. The last thing I want to do is get into this sort of game of playing long rallies with him." (Editing by Sudipto Ganguly)