Top seed Milos Raonic marked his Delray Beach Open debut in emphatic style with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Tim Smyczek on Tuesday.

The World No. 4 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, back in action after a quarter-final showing at the Australian Open, needed just 24 minutes to clinch the opening set against the American qualifier. Smyczek reached the quarter-finals at Delray Beach in 2016, but his challenge looked to be fading when Raonic saved four break points at the start of set two.

The Canadian struck 10 aces and won 90 per cent of points off first serves. He secured the decisive break in the ninth game to book a second-round encounter with #NextGenATP player Borna Coric. The Croatian defeated Santiago Giraldo 6-2, 6-3.

“Overall I have to be happy. I haven’t played much tennis over the last few weeks, and I really put in as much work as I could over the last week to get into my best shape here, and now I’m here. I’ve won my first match and I hope I can continue,” Raonic said. “I feel good.”

In the first match on Stadium Court, top-ranked American Jack Sock prevailed 6-4, 7-6(2) against Moldavian Radu Albot to improve his 2017 match record to 8-1. World No. 21 Sock, who captured his second ATP World Tour singles title at the ASB Classic in Auckland last month, will next face Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

“It’s probably my eighth time playing here if you count the juniors. I have a lot of experience in Delray. I’ve played the junior clays here numerous times. So I have great memories here,” reflected Sock. “I feel a lot more confident this year, a lot stronger, excited to be back and hopefully for many more years.”

To hear Tommy Haas say it, the actual tennis – the winning of matches, the hoisting of trophies – is secondary during his latest and final comeback, which continues this week at the Delray Beach Open.

The 38 year old, who’s coming back after his ninth surgery last April, remains more focused on saying farewell to the places he loves the most and having his oldest daughter watch it all.

“I want to finish on my own terms. That’s really what it’s all about,” Haas told ATP World Tour Uncovered. “I’d like to go back to some of these events that I’ve had a great time playing at and just say goodbye in my own way and see if I can still play some good tennis and mainly also have my oldest daughter Valentina still somewhere on the sidelines cheering me on.”

Before January, when Haas had to retire during his first-round match at the Australian Open, it had been months since 6-year-old Valentina and Haas’ fans had been able to root for him on the court. The German had been out of action since October 2015, when he fell to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the first round at the Erste Bank Open 500.

Last April, Haas underwent surgery to repair a torn ligament and a ligament-like structure on his right foot, the latest part of his body to go under the knife. Haas had previously endured surgeries on his shoulders, rotator cuffs, elbows, hips and ankles.

Read More: Haas, 38, Planning Another Comeback After Ninth Surgery

But the former World No. 2 has learned to see the positive side of things, and he’s appreciating this extra time during the final stage of his 21-year career.

“I just think that sometimes there’s always a lot of reasons for everything. If I didn’t have maybe the last shoulder surgery again or the foot surgery, maybe Valentina wouldn’t have gotten to see her Dad play,” said Haas, who plans to bring her to events in a few months.

Coming back at least the 11^th time from surgeries has been hard on the 6’2” right-hander. After his foot surgery in April, he couldn’t do much of anything for about four months.

“You lose pretty much all your muscles in your body, and it takes a lot of time to try to get back in some kind of shape,” Haas said.

Before Monday night, when he and Canadian Vasek Pospisil won their first-round doubles match at the Delray Beach Tennis Center, Haas hadn’t won a tour-level contest since 2015 Wimbledon. (Haas makes his Delray Beach singles debut on Tuesday against Memphis Open finalist Nikoloz Basilashvili).

The veteran has also struggled to balance his different roles. In addition to his comeback, he’s working a more than full-time job as the BNP Paribas Open tournament director in Indian Wells. He also has two young daughters at home whom he hates to leave, although Valentina is starting to understand what Daddy has been doing all these years.

“Every time I’m away she always asks me if I’m winning a trophy. Usually the answer is I’m just trying to win a match here,” said Haas, who’s won 15 ATP World Tour titles, including the 2011 Delray Beach Open. “Like I said, it’s going to be great to have her somewhere in the stands, sometime in the next few weeks or months, watching me play and cheering me on – the memories I want to make.”

She will have thousands of people like her in the stands, smiling and cheering for Haas one last time.

Belgian qualifier Arthur De Greef claimed his “biggest win” on Monday at the Rio Open presented by Claro. The 24-year-old prevailed against defending champion and No. 3 seed Pablo Cuevas 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, claiming the only break of the 65-minute third set in a memorable final game.

“It was unbelievable,” said De Greef following his third tour-level match win. “I played from the start till the end a very good match. It was unbelievable with the crowd who was going crazy. We did a few unbelievable points. I enjoyed a lot.”

De Greef, who reached a career-high No. 129 Emirates ATP Rankings in January, goes on to play Argentine Nicolas Kicker, a 7-5, 6-0 winner over fellow qualifier Marco Cecchinato. Cuevas had upset Rafael Nadal last year en route to the ATP World Tour 500 clay-court title. 

 Watch Full Match Replays

Norway’s Casper Ruud made good use of his wild card, beating Brazilian Rogerio Dutra Silva 6-3, 6-4 for his first ATP World Tour match win. The #NextGenATP player, currently ranked No. 208 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, did not face a break point in the 85-minute match to advance to the second round, where he will face Roberto Carballes Baena. The Spanish qualifier needed just over an hour to oust No. 8 seed Joao Sousa 6-3, 6-1.

Dusan Lajovic defeated Argentine Facundo Bagnis, claiming a 6-4, 6-4 victory in 88 minutes. The Serbian will face either second seed Dominic Thiem or countryman Janko Tipsarevic in the second round. Meanwhile, Diego Schwartzman topped fellow Argentine Renzo Olivo 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 in his opening match. He awaits the winner of the match between seventh seed Paolo Lorenzi and Federico Delbonis.

 The tournament’s top seed, Kei Nishikori, who finished as runner-up to Alexandr Dolgopolov in the Argentina Open final on Sunday, will play his opening match against home hope Thomaz Bellucci on Tuesday.

In a battle of the 19-year-olds, American #NextGenATP member Taylor Fritz saved the lone break point he faced in a 6-4, 6-4 win against Japan’s Akira Santillan at the Delray Beach Open Monday night. Fritz claimed his second tour-level win of the year and next meets the winner of countryman Donald Young and second seed Ivo Karlovic.

On playing Santillan, Fritz said, “We go way back, we’re both born in ’97. So we played juniors together. We’ve played together, practised together. We’re good friends… I definitely went in knowing I’m more experienced, just I’ve played more on tour. I was thinking about that before the match, maybe that could make a difference but I was just focused on playing tennis and I thought I played a really solid match.”

American Sam Querrey began his title defence, holding a 6-2, 2-1 lead when Israeli Dudi Sela retired from their first-round match with a back injury.

The No. 4 seed, making his fifth straight appearance at the tournament, improved his match record in Delray Beach to 14-7. Querrey, currently No. 35 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, will face the winner of Jared Donaldson and Mikhail Kukushkin.

Yen-Hsun Lu, 2015 Delray Beach Open quarter-finalist, fought back from a set and 0-3 down to prevail 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 over American Bjorn Fratangelo.

“It was a tough feeling in this moment. I just tried other things. I changed the game plan, trying to come into the net more and put the pressure on him,” said Lu. “In this moment, I had nothing to lose. I just tried to play a different way and see how he reacts. It worked pretty well after that.”

World No. 63 Lu will face 22-year-old Kyle Edmund for the first time. The eighth-seeded Brit, making his debut at Delray Beach, struck five aces and conceded just one break point to post a commanding 6-3, 6-0 victory against France’s Adrian Mannarino.

Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka ended qualifier Kimmer Coppejan’s run with a 6-3, 6-3 win to set-up a match with fifth seed Steve Johnson or wild card Stefan Kozlov.

Tommy Haas, making his comeback following surgery last April, teamed up with Canadian Vasek Pospisil for a 6-4, 6-3 win over Steve Darcis and Adrian Mannarino on the doubles court. 

“Happy to be back out there on the court,” said the 38-year-old Haas. “Obviously that’s the most important thing. I feel sort of fit. A lot of work still to do to play some of my tennis that I would like to play again. But to get out here and play doubles with such a nice guy that Vasek is and a good doubles player as well, it worked out great. And also giving me a chance to play a match before my singles I think is also important, because that’s really what I need.”

A LOOK BACK

Tempe Challenger (Tempe, Arizona): American Tennys Sandgren picked up his first ATP Challenger Tour title in more than three years by defeating Serbian Nikola Milojevic 4-6, 6-0, 6-3. A rain-filled weekend pushed the semi-finals to Sunday and the final to Monday. Sandgren’s last Challenger win came in November 2013 in Champaign, Illinois.

Milojevic still seeks his first Challenger title, dropping to 0-2 in Challenger finals after finishing runner-up last month in Noumea (l. Mannarino).

Challenger La Manche Cherbourg (Cherbourg, France): Frenchman Mathias Bourgue delighted the local crowd by taking the title with a 6-3, 7-6(3) win over Maximilian Marterer of Germany. Bourgue earned his second ATP Challenger Tour crown, with the previous one also coming in France when he prevailed in Blois in June 2015. He improves to 11-3 in Challengers in 2017.

Marterer was seeking his third ATP Challenger Tour title, having won back-to-back events last September in Morocco.

WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID

Sandgren: “It’s been a beautiful place to play and I’ve really enjoyed it. Thankfully the tournament was gracious enough to extend to a Monday family. I think I’ve played some really good tennis this week and the competition was really strong, so I got a little lucky today and just hung in there.”

A LOOK AHEAD

There are three tournaments on the calendar this week, with the $75,000 event in Bergamo, Italy, taking top billing as it returns for the 12^th consecutive year. Local favourite Andreas Seppi is the top seed and Lukas Lacko of Slovakia is the second seed. Other notable names in the draw are seventh seed #NextGenATP star Quentin Halys of France, eighth seed Marterer looking for another big run and former Top 15 player Jerzy Janowicz of Poland.

The long-standing $50,000 event in Kyoto, Japan, celebrates its 21^st year. Local favourite Yuichi Sugita is the top seed and Grega Zemlja of Slovenia is the second seed. Ze Zhang of China looks to build on his win earlier this month in San Francisco as the fourth seed.

The $50,000 Challenger in Morelos, Mexico, is back for the fourth straight year. Jordan Thompson of Australia is the top seed and Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia is the second seed. #NextGenATP star Alexander Bublik of Russia is the third seed and Novikov aims to build on his Tempe form as the fourth seed.

View Draws & Watch Free Live Streams

ATP CHALLENGER TOUR ON TWITTER: The ATP Challenger Tour has launched a dedicated Twitter account for the latest news and information about players and events. Follow @ATPChallengerTour at twitter.com/ATPChallengerTour.