Canada's Milos Raonic returns the ball with a forehand shot to Germany's Philipp Petzschner during the ATP Stockholm Open tennis tournament in Stockholm on Wednesday.JONATHAN NACKSTRAND
Canadian Milos Raonic reached his first quarter-final since June as he comfortably defeated German Philipp Petzschner 6-3, 6-3 Wednesday in the second round of the Stockholm Open.
The 20-year-old from Thornhill, Ont., hit seven aces and 38 winners in dispatching Petzschner in 74 minutes. The victory came less than 24 hours after he beat 2009 champion Marcos Baghdatis in the opening round in a post-midnight finish.
Raonic is ranked 29th in the world, compared to No. 64 for Petzschner.
Raonic is playing only his third ATP event since returning from July 5 hip surgery, the result of a second-round slip on the grass of Wimbledon.
The Canadian won his 30th match of the season against 16 defeats.
"I'm making good progress," said Raonic of his late-season comeback. "I'm finding a way to win."
Raonic will next play either fourth seed Juan Chela of Argentina or Bulgarian youngster Grigor Dimitrov.
Raonic took his revenge after losing to Petzschner at the Halle grass event in Germany in June, with the Canadian reaching his fifth quarter-final of this injury-interrupted season.
Raonic fired three aces early in the Petzschner match and earned his first break for 3-1, though he had a set point saved by the German in the eighth game before serving out the set 6-3 in just over half an hour.
The second set was much the same, with a break in the seventh game for 4-3 providing the winning edge. Raonic closed it out two games later on his first match point as Petzschner drove a backhand into the net.