PARIS, May 26, 2016
Eighth favourite Milos Raonic will join his fellow top-seeds in the bottom half of the draw in the third round of the French Open. The 25-year-old Canadian defeated Adrian Mannarino 6-1, 7-6, 6-1 in the final match on court Philippe Chatrier on Wednesday evening.
Raonic fired seven aces, winning 54% of his first service points. He converted four of his seven break point chances to seal victory in one hour and 36 minutes.
“Overall I think that I did a good job. I kept putting pressure on him and I was able to play on my terms pretty much most of the match,” Raonic told and needed some time to get used to the conditions on the biggest tennis court in Paris.
“It’s a little bit different. Takes a little bit of getting used to, especially because the court is big so you don’t want to get caught too far behind. But it’s fun to be back there. I played two matches there two years ago and I was fortunate enough to get to play there early on in this tournament. I enjoy the court. You have to definitely keep a mind out for not getting caught too far back,” the world number nine pointed out.
Raonic will take on Andrej Martin next, who upset Lucas Pouille, winning 6-3, 7-6, 6-3. The pair only met once before at the qualification of the Australian Open 2011. Raonic emerged victorious in three sets.
“I believe he was serving for the match at one point in the second set and I just started running and just sort of scrapping the ball in the court and managed to get through that match. I played well in the third set. But I am definitely far beyond the player I was back then. Mentally light years away and physically as well what I’m able to do. It’s going to be a difficult match. I will have to study up. I remember a few things from him back then, but what I remember I already discussed with Carlos (Moya). He only saw one game of the match. I am sure he’ll watch it more.”
Raonic also explained why he joined Snapchat. which is primarily used for creating multimedia messages.
“At first I thought Snapchat was going to disappear. I didn’t think it was going to be something that was going to stick around too much. From a logical standpoint, probably the social media one that has the most interaction and people actually pay the most attention to.
From an enjoyment standpoint, I had fun with my girlfriend’s Snapchat a few times. I thought, okay, I think I could do a more lighthearted version of what I tend to do in general. We’ll see how it goes. It hopefully doesn’t get me in trouble.”
Raonic is also interested in the histories of the cities he is staying. After Rome, he is now going to discover Paris next.
“I prefer walking around in Paris. I prefer the historic sites of Rome, especially because I don’t know that much about them. I’ve spent more time even away from tournaments in Paris. I feel like in Rome for the first time I went with the tour guide in the Colosseum, and I felt like I knew quite a bit. At the end of the day I was shocked at some of the things I heard. I think I have a lot more exploring to do in Rome, but Paris doesn’t lack any history or culture,” he told and added:
“I think my fitness trainer was telling me today they almost tore down the Eiffel Tower after it was built because the big artists here were complaining about how ugly they thought it was.”
