Raonic beats Troicki 6-3, 6-4 in Toronto

TORONTO – Milos Raonic defeated Viktor Troicki of Serbia 6-3, 6-4 in a second-round match at the Rogers Cup on Tuesday.

Americans Mardy Fish and Sam Querrey also advanced to the third round. Fish beat Matthew Ebden of Australia 6-2, 6-0 and Querrey ousted Jurgen Melzer of Austria 6-3, 6-2.

Raonic said he felt no unusual pressure playing before his hometown crowd.

"Obviously it's a little bit different when you got on the court, but before the match I really didn't change anything the way I would normally," he said.

Raonic won the first set after breaking Troicki's serve in the eighth game and then held his own serve.

The 21-year-old broke Troicki's serve in the third game of the second set and then held his serve, finishing it off with an ace, to go ahead 3-1 in the set.

Raonic overcame a couple of double-faults in the sixth game of the second set to go ahead 4-2, again finishing it with an ace, his fourth of the 1-hour, 8-minute match.

Near the end, Raonic said he might have tried to force things in his return game on Troicki's serve.

"I was making some sloppy errors and giving away too many points at that point," he said.

Raonic's serve is his biggest weapon and he hit seven aces in the match.

He would like to continue to improve other aspects of his game so that as his career evolves he will be known for more than a big serve.

"But no matter what, my serve is going to be my best part and probably the first thing that comes out of people's mouths when they sort of come to describe me," he said. "Maybe at one point people will get sick of talking about it and I'll be doing something else well."

In other matches, Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic upset Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine 6-3, 6-1 ; former world No. 2 Tommy Haas of Germany stopped David Nalbandian of Argentina 6-2, 6-7 (11), 6-3; Mikhail Youzhny of Russia held off Kevin Anderson of South Africa 6-1, 7-6 (3); and Juan Monaco of Argentina outlasted Vasek Pospisil of Canada 7-5, 6-4.