Rotterdam, The Netherlands (SportsNetwork.com) – No. 2 seed Milos Raonic
was a hard-fought opening-round winner Tuesday at the $1.825 million ABN AMRO
World Tennis Tournament.
The Canadian slugger swatted 19 aces and overcame Russian qualifier Andrey
Kuznetsov 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 7-5 at Ahoy Rotterdam.
Meanwhile, eighth-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon grounded Portuguese Joao Sousa
5-7, 6-3, 6-2 on Day 2.
Also on Tuesday, Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky held off Spaniard Marcel
Granollers 6-2, 7-6 (9-7), Canadian Vasek Pospisil doused German Philipp
Kohlschreiber 6-4, 6-2 and Jeremy Chardy was tied with fellow Frenchman
Julien Benneteau 3-3 in the first set when the 2013 Rotterdam runner-up
Benneteau retired.
The 2015 Rotterdam champ will earn $405,000.
