(Stuttgart) Canadian Milos Raonic reached the quarter-finals of the ‘s-Hertogenbosch tournament thanks to a 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 victory over Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut on Thursday.
The 33-year-old veteran had 25 aces and won 78% of his points on serve. He didn’t defend the only break point he faced, but he broke Bautista Agut three times in four attempts.
Raonic improved his career record to 6-0 against Bautista Agut, but it was the first meeting between the two men since 2017.
Raonic will now cross swords with Australian Alex de Minaur, the favorite of this ATP 250 caliber tournament played in the Netherlands. De Minaur did not lose in two duels against the Ontarian, including the one at the most recent Australian Open, where Raonic withdrew due to injury.
Raonic joined Bianca Andreescu in the quarterfinals. The latter will face the Japanese Naomi Osaka on Friday.
In other results on grass, Denis Shapovalov lost 6-4, 6-4 to Matteo Berrettini in the round of 16 of the Stuttgart Tennis Open.
Shapovalov, who is ranked 117th in the world, fell to the Italian after an hour and 14 minutes on the German pitch. He is now 2-1 in his career against Berrettini, having beaten him in the 2019 Davis Cup finals and the 2018 St. Petersburg tournament.
The 25-year-old Ontarian lacked bite with his first serve ball during the match, winning only 53% of the points in this phase of play, compared to 68% for his opponent.
Shapovalov still recorded three aces, but he also committed four times as many double faults (4-1) as his rival. The Canadian also made a total of 11 unforced errors, compared to five for Berrettini.
Furthermore, the representative of the Unifolié was unable to break his opponent on his only opportunity of the match, while Berrettini converted two of his three break points – to take the lead 5-4 in the first set, then 3-2 in the second. He never looked back after that, converting the first of his three match points.
Berrettini will now face in the quarter-finals the winner of the duel between Australian James Duckworth and the second seed of the tournament, American Ben Shelton.
In Nottingham, England, Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and her teammate, New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe, saw their quarterfinal match against Britons Maia Lumsden and Naiktha Bains suspended due to bad weather.
