Canada’s Milos Raonic returned to Davis Cup motion for the primary time in 5 years to offer the reigning champion a quick begin in its Closing Eight conflict in opposition to Finland on Tuesday.
The large-serving Raonic banged down 18 aces in a 6-3 7-5 defeat of lowly-ranked Finn Patrick Kaukovalta to place Canada 1-0 forward within the best-of-three tie.
Raonic started the match with a recreation of aces and ended it with one other one after little greater than an hour.
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Each groups have been hit by accidents, with Canada’s top-ranked participant Felix Auger-Aliassime unable to take to courtroom whereas Finland’s primary Emil Ruusuvuori was additionally dominated out.
Former world quantity three and Wimbledon runner-up Raonic has performed solely a handful of matches this 12 months however had an excessive amount of firepower for 782nd-ranked Kaukovalta, who put up a great combat in his first-ever Davis Cup singles rubber.
Gabriel Diallo will ship Canada into the semi-finals if he beats Otto Virtanen within the second singles rubber.
Canada is trying to retain the title it received in opposition to Australia final 12 months in Malaga and in addition make it a sweep for the nation after the ladies received the Billie Jean King Cup.