Canadians Milos Raonic and Denis Shapovalov got off to a strong start at the 2018 DelRay Beach Open on Tuesday, as both men advanced to the round of 16 with straight set victories.
Raonic earned his first win of the 2018 ATP Tour season, defeating Japan's Taro Daniel 6-1, 7-5. Shapovalov followed that up by beating Croatian veteran Ivo Karlovic 7-5, 7-6 (4).
After dominating the first set 6-1, Raonic looked set to cruise to his first win since Oct. 2017 but he stumbled out of the gates in the second, falling behind five games to two. The 27-year-old responded by winning the last five games to set up a second-round date with American Steve Johnson.
Milos Raonic rallies from 2-5 in 2nd set to beat No. 104 Taro Daniel 6-1, 7-5 in 1st round of Delray Beach. It's only his 2nd win (Troicki in Tokyo in Oct.) since beating Baghdatis in Washington last July. Now vs No. 51 Steve Johnson. MR leads H2H 3-0 - all matches were in 2014
— Tom Tebbutt (@tomtebbutt) February 20, 2018
Shapovalov worked a little bit harder than Raonic for his first-round win, but he managed to come up with a pair of clutch breaks to seal the match in straight sets.
The 18-year-old snatched the first set before it could get a tiebreak by winning the final two points as Karlovic served at 5-6, 30-30. The 38-year-old Croatian faced the same situation in the second set, this time holding his nerve at 5-6 to force a tiebreaker. The players traded the first six points, but Shapovalov gave himself a chance to serve for the match by breaking Karlovic to take a 4-3 lead. After holding serve to extend the lead to 6-3, Shapovalov wasted one of his three match points, but took advantage of the second to clinch the win in front of a pro-Canada crowd.
Fans in Florida got behind Raonic and Shapovalov on Tuesday, but they had a little bit of trouble pronouncing the latter's name. The 18-year-old phenom didn't seem to mind after the match, sharing a video of their outrageous attempts on Twitter.
Shap-n-vola 😂😂 https://t.co/OQ72h7IFiZ
— Denis Shapovalov (@denis_shapo) February 20, 2018
Raonic will return to action Wednesday to face Johnson at 2:30 p.m ET. Shapovalov will face 21-year-old American Jared Donaldson on Thursday.