Adrian Mannarino vs. Milos Raonic - 2020 Rome Open First Round
Tuesday, September 15 2020
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Milos Raonic meets Adrian Mannarino in their first-round encounter here at the Rome Open on Tuesday, September 15th 2020. Will Mannarino outmaneuver the big swinging Canadian or will Raonic outpower him today?
Adrian Mannarino had a very poor US Open campaign, losing in the second round to Alexander Zverev in straight sets. Mannarino is one of the most average tennis players out there in my opinion and of course he can cause trouble to big players on his day, but that is very unlikely to happen many times. Mannarino really is known because he can play to his opponents weakness as he is a lefty, but I have not seen enough of that in the last year to give me any confidence surrounding his overall game and his overall ability to go far in tournaments like these. Mannarino is more of an ATP250 player for me, he does not have the game to compete in Masters 1000 and Grand Slams.
Milos Raonic had been playing incredibly well over the last 3 weeks in New York, reaching the Final of the Cincinnati Masters and reaching the third round of the US Open. Raonic knows he should've gone further in the US Open, however, an extremely solid performance by Vasek Pospisil took that away from him. However, this should not discount how solid Raonic has been since the return of tennis. Raonic's serve seems extremely precise and fast, whilst his forehand and backhand are as good as ever. I expect big things from Raonic in these next few months and he will definitely want to get his clay-court season started here with a win.
This is going to be the fourth meeting between these two players with Milos Raonic leading the head to head 2-1. Raonic is the better player by a mile in my opinion and I just do not see Mannarino winning this. Raonic is starting to get back to his best and he will be extremely determined to get a solid victory under his belt here to begin his clay-court campaign this season. Take Raonic to win in straight sets.