ESTORIL, Portugal - Canadian Milos Raonic won his opening match at the Estoril Open Tuesday, defeating Russian Igor Andreev 6-4, 6-4 to set up a second-round contest with a Portuguese wild card.
The fifth-seeded Raonic earned revenge for a loss he took against Andreev in the quarter-finals of Kuala Lumpur last October as the Canadian started his climb up the rankings to a current 27th.
Raonic won his 21st match of the season against seven losses and improved to 7-2 on clay, including two wins in Davis Cup against Mexico last month.
"I feel good, I'm happy I could play this well so early in the event," said Raonic. "Igor is a tremendous player on clay. I squeezed through the tough situations and handled them well. This is a start and something to build up for rest of week."
The 20-year-old from Thornhill, Ont., will play on Wednesday for a spot in the quarter-finals at the Estadio Nacionale against 148th-ranked Joao Sousa.
"That will be tough for many reasons: the player, the atmosphere, the home crowd, which can all only help (Sousa) ...," said Raonic. "I need to find a way to win and stay mature about it all. Hopefully I can come with as good a result as I had today. I'm feeling better and better on clay, playing better with each match.
"I want to keep improving without putting too many expectations on myself."
Closing it out wasn't easy, with Andreev saving a pair of match points in the final game and forcing Raonic to save two break points.
The Canadian finally came through with a service winner to claim victory in 84 minutes with a modest four aces. He saved all eight break points he faced.
The 97th-ranked Andreev has a reputation as a tough match-up on clay, where he has won two of his three ATP singles titles, all claimed in 2005.
But Raonic applied the pressure as he has done since stepping onto the surface early in April, breaking for 3-2 in the opening set.
That was enough of a margin for the Canadian to take the early lead, which he consolidated in the second set with another break in the fifth game. The seed moved out to 5-3 before Andreev mounted his short-lived rally.
