Raonic serves up feast of power to retain San Jose crown

February 20, 2012 11:58 pm | Updated 11:58 pm IST - San Jose

FIERCE PLAY: Chennai Open champion Milos Raonic swamped Denis Istomin with some big serves to retain the SAP Open on Sunday.

FIERCE PLAY: Chennai Open champion Milos Raonic swamped Denis Istomin with some big serves to retain the SAP Open on Sunday.

Big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic became the first two-time winner on the ATP World Tour this season when he beat unseeded Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 7-6(3), 6-2 in Sunday's final to repeat as champion of the San Jose Open.

The third-seeded Raonic, who won the Chennai Open in the opening week of the 2012 season, blasted 61 aces in the tournament and was only broken once on his way to the title, holding serve in 41 of 42 games.

“I think I served pretty flawlessly throughout the week,” the 21-year-old Raonic told reporters. “I feel like I'm a much better tennis player than I was last year.”

Raonic claimed the first 7-3 in a tie-breaker after all 12 games went with serve to force the decider. The world No. 32 cashed in both his break point chances in the second set to finish off a 79-minute victory in his first career clash against Istomin.

Istomin, hoping to become the first player to win his maiden ATP crown this year, had no answer for Raonic's booming serve in his second tour final following a runner-up showing in New Haven in 2010. “I won just four points on his serve, which makes it very difficult to win the match, said Istomin, ranked 61st. “I knew he was a great server and a good player.”

Sania fails to make it

Meanwhile in Dubai, Sania Mirza squandered a one-set lead to crash out of the qualifying event of the Dubai Duty Free tennis championships, losing the first round match to Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak. Sania won the first set comfortably but lost steam as the match progressed to lose 6-2, 3-6, 2-6 in $2,000,000 hardcourt event.

The Indian will now hope to do well in the doubles event, where she and partner Elena Vesnina are seeded second.

In main round action, Maria Kirilenko beat Monica Niculescu 6-3, 6-0, Flavia Pennetta overcame Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3, 6-3 and Shahar Peer put it past Fatma Al Nabhani 6-3, 6-1.

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