Canada’s Milos Raonic beat American Frances Tiafoe 6-7 (12-14), 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 in a first-round match at the National Bank Open.
The ninth-seeded Tiafoe outlasted the Canadian in a 20-minute tie-breaker in the first set.
This is Raonic’s third tournament appearance since returning to the ATP Tour in June after an injury absence of nearly two years.
After dropping the first set in a 26-point tie-break that ended with a bizarre incident involving Tiafoe touching the net outside the singles post, the 32-year-old rallied to take the second set in a tie-break before racing to a 3-0 lead in the third.
“Two years away, five years from playing in Toronto, a whole four years since I got to play in front of my parents, who were there for the majority of my matches as junior and a majority of my matches as a pro. All of these things came together for a great night for me and I’m incredible grateful for it,” Raonic said.
Raonic, who as the first Canadian to crack the Top 10 of the ATP rankings, has inspired the current generation of compatriots including Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov.
On Monday, Raonic’s 37 aces fell just one short of his record for a three-set match of 38, hit against Radek Stepanek at Memphis in 2011.
It was his first Top 10 win since 2020 ATP Masters 1000 Cincinnati (played in New York City due to the pandemic), where he beat No. 6 Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semi-finals.
Written with inputs from AP/PTI
