Milos Raonic made a robust return to the tour on the lawns of s-Hertogenbosch this week, however his first match since Indian Wells got here to an finish on Friday by the hands of Alex de Minaur on the Libema Open.
In a matchup of energy vs velocity, it was the top-seeded Aussie who acquired the higher hand, negating the Canadian’s large hitting and fixing his mighty serve sufficient instances to assert a 7-5, 6-2 win.
Whereas Raonic did have eight aces and gained 76 per cent of his first serve factors, he solely put 58 per cent of them in play and when he missed his first supply, de Minaur took benefit, successful 76 per cent of the Canadian’s second serve factors. The Aussie managed to interrupt the mighty serve 4 instances on seven break level possibilities.
De Minaur didn’t want a lot time to resolve the Raonic serve, going up love-40 within the fifth sport and changing the third break level to get an early lead. Nonetheless, he couldn’t keep the benefit, lacking a forehand handy the break proper again within the very subsequent sport.
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Rain pressured them off the court docket for 2 and a half hours with the Aussie serving at 3-4.
Late within the set after the restart, Raonic had possibilities to steal the set with love-30 and love-40 leads on the Aussie’s serve. Nonetheless, between these video games de Minaur was in a position to make the most of his opening, curling a forehand passing shot up the road to interrupt for a 6-5 lead.
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Raonic had had an opportunity to interrupt again because the Aussie served for it however dedicated three straight unforced errors from triple break level up earlier than de Minaur closed out the opener.
By way of three video games within the second set, Raonic held a 2-1 lead. The remainder of the match was one-way site visitors for the Aussie who now had learn on the Raonic serve and took full benefit of the Canadian’s second supply.
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At 2-2, Raonic despatched a forehand lengthy to give up a love break. The following time he stepped as much as serve at 2-4, the Canadian was once more damaged to like. De Minaur completed the match having gained the final 5 video games in a row.
Raonic made his return to the tour after a two-year absence at this similar occasion, shedding in spherical two to Jordan Thompson. He avenged that loss in spherical one this 12 months after which beat Roberto Bautista Agut in spherical two to succeed in his second quarter-final of 2024.
This occasion was the primary for Raonic in 2024 that didn’t finish with an damage withdrawal.
