Raonic, Monfils Power Through In Toronto

In his first appearance since reaching the Wimbledon final, fourth seed Milos Raonic wasted little time in disposing of Yen-Hsun Lu in the second round of the Rogers Cup. The Canadian took down the World No. 70 in the Emirates ATP Rankings 6-3, 6-3 on Wednesday to atone for a first-up defeat on home soil last year, in which he fell to Feliciano Lopez.

“It’s a good way to start the tournament,” said Raonic. “I look to continue hopefully playing better the next match, which I know is going to be necessary. I would like to do well here. I probably put some extra pressure on myself there. I think I got that behind me very quickly, and I played a solid match start to finish.”

Raonic is bidding to reach his third straight ATP World Tour final after runner-up showings at Wimbledon and the Aegon Championships. He will be hoping to go one better than his previous best at the Rogers Cup – a runner-up result to Rafael Nadal in 2013.

Watch: Spending A Day With Raonic In Toronto

The World No. 7 in the Emirates ATP Rankings hit eight aces and won 80 per cent of first-serve points in the one-hour, six-minute encounter to extend his FedEx ATP Head2Head record against the 32 year old from Chinese Taipei to 3-0.

He will meet #NextGen qualifier Jared Donaldson after the American sent last week’s Umag champion Fabio Fognini packing. Donaldson snapped the Italian’s five-match winning streak with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 result. The American, ranked No. 147 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, was particularly impressive on serve. He only faced three break points compared to 11 for Fognini.

Gael Monfils is on a seven-match winning streak after prevailing over local favourite Vasek Pospisil. The No. 10 seed found another gear after a tough opening set to move into the third round, 7-6(6), 6-0.

Neither player faced a break point in the opening set, but Pospisil squandered a set point on his serve in the tie-break at 6/5, allowing Monfils to take the next two points and the set. The second set was one-way traffic for Monfils, with the Frenchman winning 11 of the last 13 points to take the match.

Monfils, a winner last week at the Citi Open, will next play seventh seed David Goffin. The Belgian advanced to the third round after Sam Querrey was forced to stop play in their match due to a back injury while trailing 4-6, 1-2. Goffin also defeated Querrey in the second round of last year’s Rogers Cup. Monfils leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry with Goffin 1-0, but they haven’t played each other in more than three years.

In an all-American second-round match, No. 16 seed Jack Sock defeated Donald Young, 6-4, 6-3. Sock didn’t face a break point in the match and lost just nine points on serve, improving his FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry with Young to 3-0. He will now play second seed Stan Wawrinka for a place in the quarter-finals.