Milos Raonic has kicked-off his Madrid Masters campaign with a 7-6(4), 6-1, win over Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci.
The encounter for the world No.10 was far from straightforward as he had to contend with a series of fierce hitting from his opponent during the first set. Bellucci is always at his most dangerous on the clay. During the Brazilian’s career, he has won a trio of ATP titles on the surface. As both men stayed strong on their serve, the set was concluded after the Canadian broke the world No.36 four times in the vital tiebreaker.
The match was a tale of two halves. The closeness between the two men during the first part of the match swiftly turned into a one-way show as Raonic dominated a tiring Bellucci throughout the second set. Aided by back-to-back breaks, Raonic raced to 4-0 in the second set before easing his way to the match.
There is still room for improvement for the world No.10 after he produced a costly 21 unforced errors to coincide with his 20 winners. In contrast Bellucci’s winner-error ratio was 14-24.
The encouraging display from the Canadian has set him up with a second round meeting with Alexandr Dolgopolov, a player who he defeated in straight sets at the 2015 BNP Paribas Open.
In other matches at the Caja Magica, Feliciano Lopez survived a two-and-a-half hour marathon against Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer. Lopez, who is playing in Madrid for the fifteenth year, battled past the Argentine 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-4. The 34-year-old revealed after his win that he experienced trouble against Mayer due to the conditions.
“He is an overall complete player. He hits the ball very well and serves pretty good,” Lopez said about Mayer’s game.
“Here in Madrid it’s complicated to play against him. It’s tough to play against him with the conditions that we have here, and especially in the first match when you’re not just used to the conditions here. It’s not easy to return his balls because they’re very heavy.”
Other winners on Monday included Gilles Simon, who battled past Marcos Baghdatis 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. Andrey Kuznetsov saw off Viktor Troicki in straight sets. Finally, Denis Istomin defeated Teymuraz Gabashvili 6-1, 6-4.
