NAN-S-19
Season
Abuja, July 4, 2017 (NAN) Milos Raonic faced serious test on Tuesday but remained perfect at the Wimbledon Championships, beating German Jan-Lennard Struff 7-6(5), 6-2, 7-6(4).
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Raonic, who was runner-up in 2016, has now won all seven of his Wimbledon openers.
His best run at the All-England Club came a year ago when Raonic became the first Canadian to reach a Grand Slam tournament final, before falling to Andy Murray.
The 26-year-old Raonic has struggled with injuries for much of this season, though, giving out a walkover or altogether withdrawing from five tournaments so far this year.
Raonic failed to serve out the match at 5-4 in the third set but came through in the tie-break to advance to the second round.
He will next face Russian Mikhail Youzhny, who beat Frenchman Nicolas Mahut 6-2, 7-5, 6-4.
Also, Juan Martin del Potro maintained his record of always reaching the second round when he beat Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-4 in three hours and three minutes.
The number 29 seed from Argentina, who reached the 2013 semi-finals was making his eighth appearance at the All England Club,
He will next challenge Ernests Gulbis, who committed just 19 unforced errors and saved all six break points he faced in beating Victor Estrella Burgos 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 in 88 minutes.
Del Potro, who was contesting his 50th grass-court match of his career (35-15), opened up a 3-0 lead in the first set and appeared to be in control of Kokkinakis.
But the Australian broke to 15 for a 5-3 lead in the second set and grew in confidence.
Del Potro recovered from a 1-3 deficit in the third set, which saw Kokkinakis save one set point on serve at 4-5.
Del Potro’s greater groundstroke power began to tell, and he finally sealed his 14th match win of the year on his seventh match point chance.
Earlier in the day, Spain’s David Ferrer won 19 of his 20 service games in a confidence-boosting win over Richard Gasquet.
Ferrer defeated the French number 22 seed 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 to deny him of his 100th major match win.
The Spaniard is unseeded at a major championship for the first time since the 2005 Australian Open.(NAN)
VO/OLAL
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(Edited by Olawale Alabi)