Milos Raonic seemed well on his way to kicking off his title defence in style when he led 6-2, 5-4 and was serving for the match. However, struggles on serve began to mount and the defending champion found himself sent packing in his first match of the 2016 St. Petersburg Open at the hands of Mikhail Youzhny. The Russian roared back to score the 2-6, 7-6(6), 7-5 upset.
Raonic races through opener
After a strong hold to start the match, Youzhny soon found himself under pressure from the Canadian’s assault. He had to battle through three deuces and save a break point just to hold in his second service game. After missing the opportunity, Raonic took control. From 1-2 down, he reeled off five straight games to take the set. He broke Youzhny in the following game after preventing the Russian from holding three times. He added a second break in his next return game, this time breaking to 15.
Raonic was his usual dominant self on serve in the opener, only dropping two points on his own serve in the entire set, including five aces. When it came time for him to serve out the set, he made no mistake holding to love to wrap it up in 33 minutes.
Youzhny survives to force decider
Youzhny very nearly found himself down a break immediately in the second set, as he was forced to save a break point in his very first service game. The tables turned quite suddenly in the next game, as Raonic found himself struggling on serve for the first time in the match. After having only dropped two points so far in the far on serve, he had to save a pair of break points before holding. In his next service game, the Canadian once again had to battle through a deuce to hold.
The match seemed over when, despite most of the pressure coming from Youzhny, Raonic broke at 4-4. But in a rare lapse, the Canadian was unable to serve out the match and was broken back. He swiftly broke Youzhny again, but once again was broken as he attempted to serve out the match. In the tiebreak, Raonic raced ahead 5-1 in the tiebreak, but could not maintain the lead. The Russian would roar back and take the tiebreak 8-6 to force a deciding set.
Late break hands Youzhny upset
After four routine games to start the set, Youzhny had the first break point, but could not convert. In the following game, Raonic took a 15-40 lead and ended having five break points in the game, only for the Russian to hold serve. At 4-4, Raonic finally blinked, surrendering the break at the third time of asking.
Serving out the match would be a massive challenge for Youzhny. Raonic mounted one final charge to try to extend the match and held five more break points in the game. However, he was unable to convert any of them. After missing his first match point, Youzhny would wrap up the match on his second attempt to seal the comeback upset in just over two and a half hours.
By the numbers
Raonic will be left to regret 13 break points that he missed in the match, including 10 in the final set. While he managed 13 aces, he followed them up with eight double faults. He also only won a mere 39 percent of his second serve points, an extremely low number by the Canadian’s standards. Apart from break points saved, Youzhny’s numbers were average, as he won 64 percent of his first serve points and 50 percent of his second serve points, while converting three of his eight break points.
Youzhny goes on to play fifth seed Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinals.