Milos Raonic battles to reach Australian Open 3rd round

Canadian Milos Raonic had to rely on his big serve for support in a 7-6(6), 7-6(5), 7-5 defeat of Spain's Tommy Robredo at the Australian Open Thursday.

The 13th seed, from Thornhill, Ont., produced 24 aces in a marathon effort to reach the third round for a sixth consecutive year. The 25-year-old Raonic improved a perfect record against Roberdo to 6-0 after defeating the veteran three times in 2015.

Raonic is hoping to follow up on his best career result in Melbourne after advancing into the quarter-finals last season where he lost to Novak Djokovic.

The contest lasted two hours 55 minutes, with Raonic going through from 75 winners, but only one break of serve in the final game. He now stands 16-5 over his career at the tournament and 6-0 in 2016 after beating Roger Federer for the Brisbane title.

Raonic finally finished his job with Robredo spraying a return long.

Raonic made the match look like hard work at times, as he and Robredo limited their attacks to duels from the baseline as clouds gave way to weak sunshine at Melbourne Park.

Each of the first two sets took at least one hour, with Raonic squeezing through in tiebreakers after missing on seven break chances in the opening set and taking the lead after five set points.

The Canadian got slightly less complicated in the second, requiring only one set point to win it for a two-sets-to-love lead

In first round men's doubles action, Canada's Adil Shamasdin and Austrian Philipp Oswald were defeated 6-4,7-5 by Americans Eric Butorac and Scott Lipsky.

Murray extends perfect record

Andy Murray maintained his perfect record against Australian opponents when he defeated Sam Groth 6-0, 6-4, 6-1, his 17th consecutive win against players from Down Under.

He also kept up his nearly perfect record of beating players at their home Grand Slam, moving to 13-1 — his only loss to a player in their home major was to Gael Monfils at the 2006 French Open.

The four-time Australian Open finalist advanced to the third round for the eighth time. He won the 2012 U.S. Open and 2013 Wimbledon.

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