Milos Raonic of Canada plays a backhand return to Alex de Minaur of Australia during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championships at Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 15, 2024. Raonic advanced to the quarterfinals of the ABN Amro Open tennis tournament with a 6-4, 6-4 upset of eighth seed Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan on Wednesday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Asanka Brendon Ratnayake
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands – Canadian veteran Milos Raonic advanced to the quarterfinals of the ABN Amro Open tennis tournament with a 6-4, 6-4 upset of eighth seed Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan on Wednesday.
The 33-year-old Raonic, a former world No. 3 from Thornhill, Ont., scored a key break to go up 3-2 in the second set and kept Bublik at bay the rest of the way with his powerful serve.
Five of Raonic’s 12 aces came after that break, including three straight to go up 5-3 and another to set up match point in the final game.
Raonic’s quarterfinal opponent is yet to be determined, but a possibility could be Gael Monfils.
The French veteran moved on to the second round with a tough 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) win over Canadian qualifier Denis Shapovalov.
Shapovalov, from Richmond Hill, Ont., missed on a break point chance in Game 7 of the second set.
With the second tiebreaker tied 5-5, Monfils won the next point on return before converting match point on serve.
Monfils will face the winner of a match between top seed Jannik Sinner of Italy and Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands in the second round. The winner of that match will face Raonic in the quarterfinals.
Later Wednesday, 2022 Rotterdam champion Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal faced second seed Andrey Rublev of Russia in a second-round match.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 14, 2024.
