Milos Raonic was looking to build off his final appearance last week at the Western and Southern Open. He was chosen by Jon Wertheim before the tournament even started to make the final this year. He was facing Leonardo Mayer in his first-round match.
Raonic started the match extremely well serving out his opening game with ease and getting an early breakpoint on the Mayer serve the very next game. He managed to get the early break to lead 2-0 and from there it was one-way traffic as he took the first set with ease 6-3.
The second set was more routine with Mayer playing a little better after struggling in the first set. At 2-2 Raonic earned more breakpoints and managed once again to break the Mayer serve and take an early 3-2 lead. It got worse for Mayer when at 4-2 Raonic broke his serve again to lead 5-2 and managed to serve out the second set 6-2.
Raonic was motivated to end this match as early as possible and saw breakpoints once again in the first game of the third set. He would break and hold his serve for a 2-0 lead. At 3-1 he had more breakpoints but Mayer this time would save them. Raonic would hold his serve once again and would serve out the match at 5-3 to take the set 6-3 and the match 6-3, 6-2, 6-3.
He will face his Canadian compatriot in the next round Vasek Pospisil who also won his match in three sets against Philipp Kohlschreiber.