The new-and-improved grass court version of Milos Raonic produced another rock solid performance to beat Italy’s Andreas Seppi 7-6(5), 6-4, 6-2.
With his big serving and improved variety under new coaching consultant John McEnroe, Raonic was in truth never really pushed by the world No.45.
Once the Canadian former semi-finalist had wrapped up a competitive first set, Seppi’s game began to unravel and Raonic eventually cantered over the line in just under two hours.
Although Raonic is expected to continue his smooth passage towards a projected quarter-final with defending champion Novak Djokovic, he will need to play more good tennis to get past American big hitter Jack Sock in round three on Friday.
After the opening 12 games were shared, Raonic quickly took control of the first set tie-break and, despite some brief Seppi resistance, sealed it 7-5 with a big second serve.
The second set stayed on serve until the seventh game when a bazooka of a backhand return by Raonic brought up two break points. The world No.7 converted the first of those and from that moment the set was effectively over.
The third was even more one-sided. After the first four games were shared, Raonic broke for 3-2 and finished the No.3 Court contest with a run of four successive games.
Afterwards, Raonic said he was pleased with his success rate moving forward against the Italian.
“I thought he was doing a good job of hitting hard and deep,” he said. “I would have liked to have created more chances to come forward. When I did, it did pay off. I was pretty efficient there, which is nice.
“The ball was staying pretty low. It was hard to really get some looks to be too aggressive with. I had to sort of always be looking to change the shots up and bring him out of his repertoire.”
Raonic came through the test without McEnroe courtside and explained to the media that rumours suggesting the pair had already parted company are untrue.
“It's inaccurate. He was there with me this morning. Obviously he's trying to be there as much as he can. It depends what kind of commentating schedule he gets that day.
“For the first round, it worked out. Today it didn't because I believe he was calling the first two matches on Centre Court.”
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