Canadian Milos Raonic served and volleyed with precision to bundle Greek sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas out of the Australian Open with a 7-5 6-4 7-6(2) victory in the third round on Friday.
Raonic, who reached the last four at Melbourne Park in 2016 and the Wimbledon final the same year, hit 19 aces and 55 winners and did not give ATP Finals champion Tsitsipas a single breakpoint opportunity in the match.
Tsitsipas, a semi-finalist at the Australian Open last year, was broken once in each of the first and second sets before Raonic claimed the tiebreak, much to the disappointment of Melbourne’s large Greek community, who were out in full force at the Margaret Court Arena to support the Athens-born player.
In the fourth round, Raonic will meet 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic, who saw off Spanish ninth seed Roberto Bautista Agut in a marathon 6-7(3) 6-4 6-0 5-7 6-3 win earlier on Friday.
REUTERS