By Canadian Press

Canada’s Raonic tops Muller to advance to third round at Australian Open

Jan 17, 2017 | 11:45 PM

MELBOURNE, Australia — Third-seeded Milos Raonic of Canada maintained his record of reaching the third round all seven years he has contested the Australian Open.

The Thornhill, Ont., product saved a set point in the third before beating Gilles Muller 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4) on Thursday.

Raonic clinched the win on his second match point when Muller returned a shot wide.

Muller, who won last week’s Sydney International for his first career tournament victory, officially had a 2-0 record against the Canadian. But Raonic retired from a match against him at Wimbledon in 2011 due to a hip injury, and Muller beat him at Valencia, Spain in 2012 in two close sets.

The win advanced Raonic to a third-round match against No. 25 Gilles Simon, who beat Rogerio Dutra Silva in straight sets.

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Raonic is 3-1 in four career matches against Simon, but the Frenchman won the last encounter at London’s Queen’s Club in 2015.

“I know a lot about his game,” Raonic said of Simon. “He’s going to be trying to get me to play at his speed and his rhythm. Obviously he tried to slow things down and play low so I won’t have the opportunity to get too many shots.

“I’ve got to serve well, I’ve got to be aggressive and take it to him, because the last thing I want to do is get into a game of playing long rallies with him.”

Raonic was unable to defend his Brisbane title in the first week of the season, but is finding rhythm quickly in Melbourne — he fired 21 aces, hit 56 winners and only had 15 unforced errors against Muller.

He left the court complaining of a sore throat, and will get a day off before his next match against Simon.

“I’m going to have to get my voice back, and my breath,” Raonic said with a smile in his on-court interview immediately after the match. “So I’ll take the time to do that.”

In men’s doubles, Toronto’s Daniel Nestor and his partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France downed Andres Molteni and Diego Schwartzman 6-0, 6-4 to advance to the second round.

The Canadian Press