Third seed Milos Raonic got his quest to win a maiden grand slam title at the Australian Open off to a great start, defeating the mercurially talented Dustin Brown in straight sets, 63 64 62.
The first round encounter was rather predictable one-sided, as though Brown often endears himself to fans, his flamboyant style is far more suited to grass than any other surface.
The more rounded Raonic broke at four-three in the first set in a sequence of play that saw the Canadian win three straight games to dominate the latter stages of the opener.
Brown managed to stem the tide in the second, registering in the first game, but could find few chinks in the armour of last year’s semi-finalist, earning just a single break point in the second that was quickly snuffed out by the Canadian’s huge serve. Raonic meanwhile, was offered far more opportunities, earning six chances to break, only securing one in the fifth game. It was all that was needed as the set then went with serve, with Raonic closing out comfortably.
Raonic seemed to keen to get back to the locker room quickly, as the third seed was not satisfied with the single break that had secured the first two sets. He broke the German immediately, for two-love, and though Brown got on the scoreboard for one-two, he then lost his serve again, Raonic building a four-one advantage.
Raonic suffered a minor hiccup when serving for the match, double-faulting for thirty-all to offer Brown a glimmer of hope in retrieving one of the breaks. He quickly atoned though, the serve winning the next two points, One of the aided by a correct Hawkeye challenge to see the third seed comfortably into the second round.
Raonic: “Its great to back here in Melbourne playing I’ve always had great memories here… Its great to be here and its great to start this tournament in 2017 with this kind of support… its six more matches i gotta figure out how to win!”
Raonic will next face either Gilles Muller who secured his first ATP title at the age of thirty-three last week in Sydney, or nineteen year-old American Taylor Fritz.
