Milos Raonic gritted through a tricky opening round match on Monday to avoid a second straight first round loss at the China Open, battling Florian Mayer in a pair of tight sets. Neither man was ever able to take firm control in the match, but it was the third seed who won the key points on his way to a 6-4, 7-6(1) victory.
Late Break Enough for Raonic
Both men were completely dominant on serve for most of the opening set. Through the first nine games, each man only had one service game where their opponent won more than one points. While that was a hold to 30 for Raonic in the fifth game, Mayer found himself under pressure in his very first service game. The German veteran required three deuces and had to save a break point to avoid the early deficit.
After the men exchanged love hold late in the set, Mayer finally blinked at the worst possible moment, serving to stay in the opening set. His worst service game of the match so far saw him fall behind 15-40, double set point, and while he was able to save those two, Raonic would quickly bring up a third set point at 40-AD and converted to wrap up the opening set 6-4.
Raonic Finally Closes Out Mayer in Tiebreak
The second set was similar in that Raonic was putting the pressure on early, but Mayer did not appear to be up to the task early on. After saving a break point in his second service game, the German was broken in the following service game to find himself down a set and break. But the veteran managed to find another gear and finally started putting pressure on the Raonic serve, successfully reclaiming the break as Raonic attempted to serve out the match at 5-3.
Raonic had failed to serve out the match during his first round loss in St. Petersburg two weeks ago and was determined not to let history repeat itself. The pair matched each other serve for serve and sent the set to the tiebreak. The breaker went entirely the way of the Canadian. Raonic raced out of the blocks and grabbed a 6-0 lead. Mayer could only save one match point before the third seed sealed the match on his own serve one point later.
By the Numbers
After his serve let him down in his last few matches, Raonic’s biggest weapon was firing on all cylinders on Tuesday, as he fired 23 past Mayer, good enough for half of the points won on his serve. In fact, he had nearly as many aces as Mayer had return points won (27). In total, he won all but three points on his first serve, good enough for 90 percent. He also saved one break point out of two. Despite far less impressive service numbers, including a poor 48 percent of second serve points won, Mayer did well to hang in the match as long as he did, saving five of seven break points.
Raonic awaits the winner between Malek Jaziri and Guido Pella in the second round.