Raonic out of Rome Masters, loses to Mayer

German Florian Mayer surprisingly beat Canadian Milos Raonic 7-6 (5)  6-4 in the first round of the Rome Tennis Masters that started today.

This is a shock defeat for the Canadian, who seemed to be on top form recently, narrowly losing to Federer at this week’s Madrid Masters.

Raonic struggled to return Mayer’s serve and going from the fast blue clay in Madrid to the lot slower surface in Rome, he didn’t get that many free points after his first serves found their mark.

Mayer’s next opponent will be the second seed and last year’s finalist Spaniard Nadal.

In the other first round matches, Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero defeated South Africa’s Kevin Anderson 6-4  7-5, Serbian Viktor Troicki overcame Italian wild card holder Filippo Volandri 4-6  6-4  6-3, Mikhail Youzhny of Russia eliminated Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil, beating him 6-2  3-6  6-3 and another Italian wild card holder Paolo Lorenzi upset Russian Nikolay Davydenko, defeating him 6-3  2-6  6-3.

Tags Filippo Volandri Florian Mayer Juan Carlos Ferrero Kevin Anderson Mikhail Youzhny Milos Raonic Nikolay Davydenko Paolo Lorenzi Rafael Nadal Rome Tennis Masters tennis news Thomaz Bellucci Viktor Troicki