Raonic Shines On Delray Beach Debut

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.”