Montreal’s Félix Auger-Aliassime and Ontario’s Milos Raonic scored victories in two sets during the first round of the ABN Amro Open in Rotterdam on Monday.
Auger-Aliassime battled for two hours and 21 minutes to overcome American qualifier Maxime Cressy 7-6 (3), 7-6 (8), in the evening. In the next round, he will face the winner of the duel between Russian Andrey Rublev and Belgian qualifier Zizou Bergs.
Auger-Aliassime largely dominated in aces (18-7) and committed four double faults, the same number as Cressy. The Montrealer finished the match with 12 unforced errors, three fewer than the American. Auger-Aliassime also collected 40 winning shots compared to 33 for Cressy.
Earlier in the day, Raonic exploited his formidable power to overcome local favorite Jesper De Jong 7-6 (5), 6-4.
Raonic fired 20 aces and won 97% of the points with his first serve, en route to his first victory of the season.
The former world number 3 managed the only break of the match, to take control 5-4 in the second set.
He then slammed two consecutive aces to set the table for a match point, before sealing the outcome of the match after an hour and 42 minutes of play.
Raonic will face the winner of the duel between eighth seed Alexander Bublik and Croatian Borna Coric in the next round.
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