Milos Raonic had only played one competitive match since withdrawing from the Japan Open in Tokyo last October with a calf strain injury. The lack of time on court showed on Tuesday as the 22nd seed fell in four sets to World No. 86 Lukas Lacko 6-7, 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 in three hours and 22 minutes in the first round of the Australian Open.
Raonic, who also fell in his opening round match in Brisbane to start the 2018 season, played a decent first set against the Slovakian, firing 24 winners including six aces but as the match wore on he began to falter and his fitness started to become an issue.
In the second set, Raonic’s first serve percentage took a dip and unforced errors came into his game. After a backhand into the net, one of 47 unforced errors from the former World No 3, it was a good combination of shot making by Lacko including a forehand winner down the line which evened the match at a set a piece.
While the Canadian’s fitness in the third set came into question with some heavy breathing and slow movements, Lacko did a nice job saving a pair of break points in the seventh game and later he fired a pair beautiful forehand winners including a cross court passing shot to give him the set.
In the fourth Raonic continued to slow down, at times not even moving on Lacko’s shots into the corners. He did save a match point down 5-4 firing one of his 36 aces in the match. Lacko was victorious in a tiebreak with the winning shot coming after the chair umpire over ruled a Raonic forehand which was called long. Hawk-eye’s review showed the original call was correct and the match was over.
“I wasn’t sharp, said Raonic after the loss. “I just struggled physically thankfully not from injury, just physically from fitness. I wasn’t quick, hitting that hard or aggressive.”
Raonic finished the match with 80 winners, Lacko had 65. The 27-year old’s net game wasn’t up to it’s usual standard as he won just 21 of 35 points when he came forward.
The first round loss was Raonic’s earliest Grand Slam exit since the 2011 French Open and was just his third first round defeat in 27 career major appearances. Raonic had never lost earlier than the third round in his career in Melbourne after reaching the semi-finals and two quarter-finals in his last three appearances.
Lacko won for just the 14th time in 44 career matches at Grand Slams. He has never defeated a Top Ten player in 18 attempts.
@Sportshorn
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