Canadian pride Milos Raonic had a good run at the Rogers Cup for the past two years. In 2013, he reached the finals before losing to Rafael Nadal and just last year, he got through to the quarters. But with a recent nagging injury, the 24-year-old struggled and lost in the first round 6-7 6-7 in the hands of tour veteran Ivo Karlovic.

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Just before the match, Raonic said his foot felt fine despite undergoing surgery for a nerve problem. Yet, his back somewhat bothered him and it played a factor in his match against Karlovic who toppled the eight seed in an hour and 41 minutes.

"That's not an excuse, merely a fact. It's clearly one that rankles," Raonic told The Globe and Mail. "There's very few things I wouldn't give up for health right now."

As expected, the match turned out to be a battle of the big servers but Raonic only managed to hit 12 aces against Karlovic's 22. The Croat also broke records that day by reaching the 10,000 career ace mark, totaling his number to 10,005. And throughout the match, Karlovic was never on the losing end.

"He was playing a little better than I was," Raonic said as reported by the Montreal Gazette. "I never had a break point against him."

Canadian fans, however, still have something to look forward to as Vasek Pospisil took care of Taiwan's Lu Yen-Hsun 6-4, 6-3 for a spot in the second round. The rain delay did not affect the Vernon, B.C. native who managed to deliver 7 aces and win 64% of his service points.

"I felt like in general it was a good match, but definitely felt like I could have played better and done some things better out there," Pospisil said. "I'm just happy that I survived that one and got the win in front of the crowd. I'm sure I can play better in matches to come."

It could be a tough next round match for the unseeded Canadian as he battles John Isner who reached the finals of the Citi Open in Washington DC just last week. Aside from serving well, Popisil said he may use home-court advantage as a weapon to counter the American against whom he has a 2-2 record.

Tagsrogers cup scores, rogers cup results, Milos Raonic, canadian open tennis, ATP news, atp tennis news, rogers cup raonic