Milos Raonic has been the the breakout star of men's tennis this year, rising from no. 157 in January to the world's top 35 in less than 3 months. But on Friday, Raonic's big serve failed to bail him out against India's Somdev Devvarman in the second round of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.
India's Devvarman won 7-6(5), 7-5 in exactly 2 hours to advance to a potential third round encounter against world no. 6 David Ferrer, of Spain. Raonic hit 12 aces but accompanied it with 7 double faults compared to 6 aces and 2 double faults for the 73rd ranked Indian.
Devvarman started off breaking the Canadian twice in the first set and serving for the set at 5-2. But Raonic saved 4 setpoints and broke back two times to level the set at 5-5 before falling short in the tie-break. In the second, Raonic broke the Indian to lead 4-2 but this time, it was Devvarman who broke back for 4-4 and then broke again with Raonic serving to stay in the match at 5-6.
The Indian was better than Raonic in each department of the game; higher first serve percentage, higher first serve points won, higher second serve points won, higher return points won - but the most crucial stat of the day was Devvarman's breakpoint conversion rate. The Indian converted on 4 of 5 break opportunities while Raonic could convert only on 3 of 8.
The win will send Devvarman into the world's top 70 in the new rankings, his third new career high ranking in the last 2 months.
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