PARIS – Canadian Milos Raonic had 19 aces Wednesday in a 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (4) win over American Jack Sock in the second round of the Paris Masters tennis tournament.
The win by the seventh-seeded Raonic means the 23-year-old from Thornhill, Ont., keeps alive his hopes of qualifying for the ATP finals.
“This match was very important in the sense of just getting my teeth into this tournament, giving myself another chance,” said Raonic. “I know I’m going to have to play better.
“Fortunately I felt like I was playing better and better at the end of the match especially.”
Raonic would be guaranteed a spot in the season-ending tournament by winning the Paris title, though other scenarios are also possible depending on wins and losses of his rivals this week.
He served as an alternate at London a year ago but never took to the court.
Raonic took the match into a deciding tiebreaker and served his way out of danger in the end.
“That thought (of going out of contention with a loss) didn’t really cross my mind,” said Raonic, whose season could have ended with a loss. “But, that (qualifying for the finals) obviously is a factor. I felt like I did a good job in that tiebreak. I got ahead on one point and then just really took care of my service points.”
Raonic pounded down a service winner to yield two match points, converting on the first with a crisp cross-court volley winner.
After beating Sock for the fifth time this season, Raonic credited his serve with seeing him through repeatedly over the American.
“My serve helps me out of a lot of tiebreaks against him,” he said. “I think he’s playing much better now than he was at the start of the year.”
The Canadian needed two hours to hold off Sock, who also dropped a 6-1, 6-4 men’s doubles decision with Vancouver’s Vasek Pospisil. They fell to Stan Wawrinka and Leander Paes, knocking them out of contention for a London berth in men’s doubles.
In other matches, the third-seeded Wawrinka ended a three-match singles losing streak with a 6-4, 7-6 (6) win over 37th-ranked Dominic Thiem, the youngest player in the top 50. After consecutive losses in Tokyo, Shanghai and Basel, the Australian Open champion put on an erratic display but prevailed on important points.
Wawrinka closed out the match after Thiem failed to convert a set point at 6-5 in the tiebreaker.
In doubles, seventh seeds Daniel Nestor of Toronto and new Indian partner Rohan Bopanna opened the week with a 6-4, 6-0 defeat of Spaniards Fernando Verdasco and David Marrero. They needed just 50 minutes to complete the victory to move into the quarter-finals.
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