Spain's Carlos Alcaraz returns a shot to United States' Ben Shelton during tennis action of the National Bank Open in Toronto, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mark Blinch

TORONTO - Milos Raonic did not expect to perform as well as he did Wednesday.

Raonic used his strong serve to power through to a 6-4, 6-3 second-round win over Japan's Taro Daniel at the National Bank Open. The Thornhill, Ont., native had 15 aces to just two double faults and broke on two of his seven opportunities.

"There was obviously some points of frustration today," he said. "A few break points I didn't necessarily play well, maybe some opportunities I felt get away which when I had opportunities in my last match, I was probably a bit more sharp.

"I just kind of kept plugging away and giving myself those chances. To be honest with you, after playing well in the first round, having not played many matches back to back in a very long time, I really didn't expect to play that well today.

"I know that that's one of the more difficult things, is that picking stuff up and carrying it from one day to the next and having that continuity … I think I can play better tomorrow so hopefully I can build off that."

World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz joined Raonic in the winner's circle Wednesday.

Alcaraz earned himself a 6-3, 7-6 (3) win over American Ben Shelton in front of a near-packed house at Sobeys Stadium. The 20-year-old Spaniard entered the match having received a bye into the second round.

He last competed at Wimbledon, where he defeated world No. 2 Novak Djokovic for his second career Grand Slam title on July 16.

Daniel, 30, had three aces to two double faults and went without a break point opportunity throughout the one hour 30-minute match against Raonic.

The 32-year-old Raonic will next face American Mackenzie McDonald — who defeated sixth-seeded Russian Andrey Rublev 6-4, 6-3 on Wednesday — in third-round play on Thursday.

Raonic entered Wednesday having defeated ninth-seeded American Frances Tiafoe on Monday in his first appearance at the NBO since 2019 and first in Toronto since 2018.

Raonic only played four matches before the NBO tournament after his comeback to the ATP Tour in June. The former world No. 3 had been sidelined since July 2021 due to an Achilles tendon issue and toe injuries.

"It's good," he said when asked how happy he was with his recovery after Monday. "That match was difficult, physically (and) emotionally on Monday.

"So to come back today and play a pretty clean match, it counts. It makes the difference today, it'll make a difference for tomorrow as well so that's something to be happy about."

The opening set was a back-and-forth affair, with Raonic finding most of his success on serve.

The Canadian fired two aces en route to winning the first game, and a mix of forehand winners and two more aces earned him a 2-1 edge.

Daniel capitalized with cross-court winners and some of Raonic's mistakes to continuously even the score while on serve.

It wasn't until the 10th game where either player won a game on return. With a 5-4 lead in hand and in deuce, Raonic won the set thanks to consecutive errors from Daniel.

In the second set, Raonic got out to a 4-1 advantage challenging Daniel with his serve. Raonic forced a wide return on his serve to make it 40-0 before sealing the game with his 10th ace.

Following chants of "Let's Go Milos!" after Daniel won the next game, Raonic fired off three consecutive aces before forcing a long return from Daniel to win the game.

After dropping the next game to Daniel, the crowd again rallied behind Raonic. Serving on match point, Raonic sealed it with his final ace, bringing the crowd to its feet.

"Getting that kind of energy, that kind of response, it makes a difference," Raonic said.

Alcaraz was also shown plenty of love, with numerous chants of "Vamos (let's go) Carlitos" and standing ovations.

After taking the opening set without much difficulty, Alcaraz found himself playing from behind in the second.

Down 5-4, Alcaraz evened the score with his fourth ace. But Shelton returned the favour going ahead with an ace of his own.

After forcing a long return on his serve, Alcaraz pushed Shelton to a tiebreaker. Shelton struggled finding his shot and Alcaraz prevailed forcing a long return on his serve on match point.

"It was not too good, honestly, because it was tough to get my rhythm," Alcaraz said when asked how it was facing someone like Shelton to start the tournament. "He hits the ball so, so strong, so I couldn't find my game, you know, the good rhythm."

The Spaniard next plays Poland's Hubert Hurkacz on Thursday.

In other men's singles action, eighth-seeded American Taylor Fritz outlasted France's Ugo Humbert 7-6 (7), 3-6, 6-3, France's Gael Monfils upset fourth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece 6-4. 6-3 and second-seeded Daniil Medvedev of Russia moved past Italy's Matteo Arnaldi 6-2, 7-5.

Canada's Gabriel Diallo lost 6-4, 7-5 to Australia's Alex de Minaur earlier Wednesday.

The 21-year-old Montreal native won his first ATP Tour level match on Tuesday against Britain's Dan Evans to advance into the second round.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 9, 2023.

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