By Chris Oddo | Saturday February 25, 2017
Milos Raonic battled past Juan Martin Del Potro in two tough sets to reach the final of the Delray Beach Open.
Milos Raonic’s Delray Beach Open debut is going the distance.
The Canadian advanced to the final late on Saturday night by edging past former champion Juan Martin del Potro, 6-3, 7-6(6).
In their first meeting since they split a pair of matches in 2013, Raonic was dominant on serve and better on the biggest points. He broke through early in the opening set and cruised through the rest of the stanza, dropping just one first-serve point to take the first.
Del Potro provided a lot more resistance in the second set, and he responded heroically after being broken at 5-all by Raonic. He stormed back and broke serve to take things to a tiebreaker.
In the breaker Del Potro fought back from a 5-4 deficit with Raonic serving to earn a set point, but a stiff backhand return from Raonic got him level and he took the final two points to clinch his victory in one hour and 46 minutes.