Raonic Delights Toronto as Fish, Haas Advance

By Erik Gudris

(August 7th, 2012) -- With several last minute withdrawals including Roger Federer, the Rogers Cup in Toronto is an opportunity for those players left in the draw to pick up some momentum and ranking points as the summer hard court season continues.

Canada's own Milos Raonic stepped foot on his home court for the first time two years as he faced Serbia's Viktor Troicki. Raonic's high powered serve delivered him seven aces as he completed an uncomplicated 6-3, 6-4 victory, his first ever win at the event.

"It feels good. I'm proud with the way I competed, with the way I played," said Raonic. "I did a lot of important things well, and I have some space for improvement for my next match."

Earlier in the day, Tommy Haas certainly made things harder on himself as he took on David Nalbandian. After Haas took the first set, he held four match points during a lengthy second set tiebreak but couldn't close it out as the German double faulted to send the match into a final set. Haas was able to recover and eventually won 6-2, 6-7(11), 6-3.

"I think it was an exciting match today overall, entertaining to say the least," Haas told ATP.com. "A lot of chances there in the second set for me to maybe find a way to finish it off. He came up with some good tennis and won the second set.

Americans Mardy Fish and John Isner also reached the third round with Fish getting a bit of revenge over Matt Ebden, who beat Fish back at Indian Wells earlier this year, with a dismissive 6-2, 6-0 rout. Isner, taking on Spain's Pablo Andujar, avoided a second set tiebreak after he was able to break Andujar in the final game to win 7-6 (5), 7-5. Sam Querrey also continued his good run this summer after he beat Jurgen Melzer 6-3, 6-2.

On Wednesday, top seed Novak Djokovic will meet Australia's Bernard Tomic while Olympic gold medalist Andy Murray faces Italy's Flavio Cipolla.

(Photo Credit: AP/Chris Young)