Stefanos Tsitsipas suffered a catastrophe 12 months ago when he took to Louis Armstrong stadium for his opening match of the US Open.
Then World No. 94 Colombian Daniel Elahi Galan swung for the fences and took the racquet out of the Greek’s hand, winning the first 11 games of the match and ultimately prevailing in four sets after clubbing 41 winners.
The seventh seed could be forgiven for feeling a little trepidation as he walked back to Armstrong Monday night to face dangerous Canadian Milos Raonic, who owned a 2-0 lead in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series and who dropped 49 aces in two matches at Wimbledon this year.
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Coached solely on the night by Mark Philippoussis, Tsitsipas was also looking for a confidence booster, having won just one match in Toronto and Cincinnati on the heels of capturing his first title of the year in Los Cabos at the beginning of this month.
The former Nitto ATP Finals champion dropped just five games in the opening two sets and responded with back-to-back breaks in the third after Raonic opened a 4-2 lead to close out a 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 win. The 25-year-old two-time major finalist limited Raonic to just eight aces and played a tidy match himself, hitting 25 winners to 20 unforced errors, while his opponent conceded 48 unforced errors and five service breaks.
“It was fun to play high quality tennis against a champion like Milos,” Tsitsipas said on court after the match. “He’s dealing with a comeback and I knew he had nothing to lose. I had to bring my A game from the very first point. I made it physical and it worked.”
Tsitsipas, who has twice reached the third round at Flushing Meadows but never reached the second week, next faces the winner of Dominic Stricker and Alexei Popyrin.
Felix Auger-Aliassime, the 15th-seeded Canadian, slipped into negative territory (14-15) on the year after falling 7-6(5), 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 to American Mackenzie McDonald in three hours, 26 minutes. Felix, who won 60 matches last year, has dropped 11of his past 14 matches.
McDonald, who reached the Toronto quarter-finals and the third round in Cincinnati, moved past his 26-match wins total for the 2022 season with Monday’s victory and moved to a career-high No. 37 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings. He next meets the winner of Hugo Dellien and Borna Gojo.