Looking like a man on a mission, Milos Raonic was not to be denied of a victory against Brazil’s Rogerio Dutra Silva in their four-set, second-round duel at the French Open, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4.
The hard-serving Canadian displayed his sheer power once again to advance to the third round in Paris for the fourth-straight time. Raonic jacked up his tally of 15 aces in the first round to a whopping 25 in his match against Dutra Silva, and those massive serves played a huge part for him to eventually win 76 percent of his chances at points on first serve.
Raonic isn’t really a guy you can easily count on in clay-court tournaments, but his 8-4 record on the surface this season is still encouraging. Of the four warm-up tournaments on clay leading up to the French Open, he’s made the quarterfinal round or better in three of them.
Not only that, but the sixth-best male tennis player in the world has beaten his next opponent at Roland Garros before in Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Raonic took all two of their head-to-head meetings against one another, albeit that they haven’t squared off in almost three years and that those two victories were held on the hard courts.
After pulling off the first-round upset over 26th-seeded Gilles Muller, World No. 115 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez’s run in Roland Garros remains intact after defeating Argentina’s Marco Trungelliti in their second-round clash, 7-5, 6-4, 7-5.
Quite similar to Raonic, the 33-year-old Spaniard showed flashes of strength himself by punching in seven aces against Trungelliti. Garcia-Lopez also won 12 of his 16 chances at points on net.
However, the La Roda native also had his fair share of struggles that afternoon. He committed eight double faults and 43 unforced errors before advancing to the third round for just the third time in 13 trips to Roland Garros.
Let’s not put too much stock into Garcia-Lopez’s surprise run in Paris. He has a mere 2-13 record in ATP World Tour events this season, and he’s lost all five of his opening-round matchups on clay prior to the French Open. He did make it to the quarterfinal round of the Verrazzano Open in France – another tournament held on terre battue – but that was only an event from the ATP Challenger Tour level.
In addition, Garcia-Lopez has only faced one top-10 opponent this year, having been decimated by top-ranked Andy Murray in quick fashion, 6-2, 6-0, over in Dubai this past February.
Writer’s Prediction
Make that three-consecutive fourth-round appearances at the French Open for Raonic (-1,500) after he ousts Garcia-Lopez in straight sets.
