Milos Raonic, the 2016 Wimbledon finalist, was far too good for India’s Prajnesh Gunneswaran in the first round at Wimbledon on Monday. The Canadian won in straight sets 7-6(1), 6-4, 6-2.
Making his debut at Wimbledon, the Indian world No 94 gave it his best shot though especially in the first set. There were no breaks of serve or break points faced, even as 15th seed Raonic served himself out of trouble at 0-30 down at one point.
But unforced errors and the Canadian’s big serve ensured that he took the first set tiebreak with a fair degree of ease.
He got the early mini-break at 2-1 and then used his booming serve to good effect to go 4-1 up. An unforced error gave the 15th seed five set points and he converted the first to take the opening set 7-6(1) in 42 minutes.
The Canadian broke to love in the first game of the second set and kept the advantage for the remainder of the set. Prajnesh kept going for it but just wasn’t consistent enough to challenge from the back of the court.
The 29-year-old India was broken in the first game of the third set as well but he then attempted to start coming to the net more often. Another break at 1-4 meant the match was all but lost. It didn’t go as he would have wanted but a good learning experience.