Milos je u 3 seta bio bolji od Mikaela Ljodre.
Milos Raonic is finally finding his feet on red clay and if the young Canadian can continue to be as resourceful as he was in dispatching the hard-charging Michael Llodra of France 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-2 in the second round, he will be tough to stop in the rest of the tournament.
The towering Raonic did not allow the net-rushing Llodra to completely push him out of his comfort zone and he forced himself to take control of the points not only by using his big service and forehand but also by varying the direction of his shots so that the Frenchman was unable to accurately predict which balls he should approach on. The right-handed Raonic also successfully pounded Llodra’s one-handed lefty backhand.
“It's definitely difficult,” the No.14 seed said. “In the first set, the game I got broken, he came up with one good point and just made me play a lot, and I let the game happen rather than going after it and forcing something to happen. And then I felt like I was pretty quiet throughout the third set. He had break points. I didn't really create any opportunities for myself. In that third set tie-breaker, it changed because I had no other choice. If I wanted to win that tie-breaker, I had to change something. And then I carried that through.”
Llodra was spectacular at times around the net, but the Canadian hit some key passes from well off the court, and was much more secure in his own service games. Raonic was no slouch around the cords either, converting 72% of his net approaches (33 of 46), while Llodra was only able to cash in 50% of his net approaches (28 of 56).
“He could return what I sent to him,” Llodra said. “Serve-wise I didn't have any opportunities. He was very strong and perhaps I didn't push him so far. I think today he must be happy to have got through the way he did.”