PARIS — Canadian Milos Raonic has already improved on last year's performance at the French Open.
Raonic powered past Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain 6-4, 6-2, 6-2, on Monday to reach the second round of the tournament.
The 19th-seed from Thornhill, Ont., opened with a win on another sunny day at Roland Garros after losing in the first round a year ago to German Michael Berrer.
"It was good to finally win my first match here," said Raonic. "It was good to play a guy like him, who doesn't give you much. I had to go and win the match."
Raonic will next face American qualifier Jesse Levine, who beat Benjamin Becker of Germany 7-5, 6-2, 6-4.
"I need to keep doing the right things and I need to work on my serving a bit," said Raonic. "I'll have to go out and play aggressive against him."
The Canadian dominated from the start, breaking his Spanish opponent five times with 12 aces.
Raonic ended with 58 winners against just 10 for Ramirez Hidalgo.
"I put pressure on him and was able to depend on my serve," said Raonic, ranked 22nd on the ATP. "I feel in control as long as I can dictate. I get nervous before all of my matches and I didn't know what to expect from him.
"Once I got into my game I relaxed and was able to play within myself."
Earlier, fellow Canadian Frank Dancevic exited the tournament after less than 30 minutes on the court, retiring due to a back issue.
The Niagara Falls, Ont., native was down 4-0 to Martin Klizan of Slovakia when he pulled out of the first-round match.
Dancevic said he was afraid to risk aggravating a back injury he suffered last month in Florida.
"I was petrified out there, I didn't know what would happen. I started feeling twinges even during the warm-up and it only got worse during the match," said Dancevic. "I didn't want to mess up my whole summer, it was just not worth it for me."
The 28-year-old took treatment after the third game but knew he could not go on.
"I wasn't able to play at 100 per cent, I was not in it at all," he said. "I played careful, I was scared to go for anything, I just knew there was no way I could go on."
The Canadian is hoping to continue healing and could be a long shot entry into Wimbledon. If not, then he will plan to be ready for the Newport grass event in the U.S. which begins July 9.
"I've entered Wimbledon qualifying just in case I'm feeling really great," he said. "I was playing so well in the spring and then I got this injury, for five days I lay on the floor with my legs on a bed, I was immobile. I only started training last week.
"But I'm still hoping to come back and play well," said the 120th-ranked Dancevic. "I would like to crack the top 100."
Many moons ago, when being a tennis pro competing in the biggest tournaments in the game was just a dream, Canadians Heidi
el Tabakh and Aleksandra Wozniak traveled the junior circuit together with their mothers.
They hadn’t seen each other in a long time. And they hadn’t met on the tennis court since both were teenagers, at a small tournament in Hamilton, Ont., in 2005 when el Tabakh led 4-1 in the first set, but had to retire due to injury.
Their reunion took place on Court 17 at the French Open Sunday, a rare Grand Slam meeting between two Canadian players.
And after el Tabakh got off to a lightning-quick start, the more experienced Wozniak prevailed
7-5, 6-2 and advanced to the second round, where she’ll play the winner between No. 31 seed Zheng Jie of China and Alizé Cornet of France.
“It wasn’t fun. I didn’t like it,” said Wozniak of playing someone with whom she has a long history.
“She hit a good ball – very heavy and flat. She went for her shots and I was playing just too short, before I adjusted my game a little bit,” she added. “I was trying to move her around more and I think she struggled with that, when I was placing the balls on the targets with more precision.
“And then, it totally changed. In the second set, it was a completely different match.”
Wozniak won just two total points in her first two service games as el Tabakh sprinted out to a 3-0 lead. The 25-year-old resident of Tampa, Fla. led 5-4, and 40-love on her serve, but couldn’t close it out; Wozniak won the next three games to take the first set, and El Tabakh got a little discouraged.
“She ripped a few, and I think I made a mistake or two, and just like that it was level at 5-5,” she said. “I think after that she let loose and picked up her game a little, and I was a little tentative. And after that I think I started going for shots too soon.
“She hit a pretty good ball and she hit a ton of balls that were close to the line, an inch in or right on the line. It was tough to keep my ball deep when she attached first,” el Tabakh added. “She returned well, she has a big backhand and nice strokes. I thought it would be a good matchup, and it really was. It was pretty close in the first set.”
El Tabakh began the season out of the top 300 and worked hard on the minor-league circuit in the U.S. to get her ranking to the
point where she could be eligible for the qualifying.
“To tell you the truth, I didn’t even think I was going to make Roland Garros qualies. And so this is just all a bonus for me,” she said.
A four-month break last year – as much physical and mental – allowed a chronic quad injury to heal. It also allowed el Tabakh’s bruised mind to heal.
“It’s tough when you travel by yourself, and you’re injured and you’re trying to play through it and you’re not getting the results. It gets frustrating and after an entire year, it’s just mentally draining,” she said. “The decision for me to take time off was probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever taken. I could have easily kept playing. But mentally I was fresh and I was hungry again, and of course I gave my body a chance to heal because, really, when do we get a chance to take a month off? And I took three or four off. I think that definitely helped.”
The bonus for Wozniak is of an entirely different nature.
Had she lost Sunday, her hopes to compete in the Summer Olympics in London in
July would have been all but dashed.
The rankings to determine the top 56 players who will make it will be the ones issued at the conclusion of the French Open. And Wozniak, currently ranked No. 57, must defend the 160 ranking points she earned a year ago – 60 for getting through the qualifying, another 100 for getting to the second round of the main draw.
Wozniak was straight into the main draw this year, and so did not earn any qualifying points. To match those 160 points, she would need to win her second-round match.
“It’s a challenging week,” she said. “Those things come to your mind for sure. And we girls, we’re emotional, always thinking too much. We analyze everything when we come into a match.
“I will try to focus. No distractions.”
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