Bernard Tomic to meet top seed Milos Raonic in Istanbul

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Tomic scrapes through0:29

Tennis: Bernard Tomic has won his second match since the Australian Open, but it wasn't pretty.

• May 2nd 2017
• 2 days ago
• /video/video.news.com.au/Sport/Tennis/

Bernard Tomic will face top seed Milos Raonic in Istanbul.

BERNARD Tomic’s reward for his first back-to-back ATP tour wins on clay since 2012 is a meeting with world No.6 Milos Raonic at the Istanbul Open.

Sixth-seed Tomic reached his first ATP event quarter-final since last September with a 7-5 6-3 second-round win over Brazilian Rogerio Dutra Silva. The Australian battled back after being broken midway through the first set by Dutra Silva, ranked 69 in the world.

He regained composure to punish his opponent’s errors, breaking back twice to take opening set before gaining the advantage with a single break point at 3-2 to win the second.

“He was playing very good in the first set and I was down one break so I was trying to make every ball,” said world No.40 Tomic.

“I got a chance there to get a break back and from there I started to play very very aggressive.” The last time Tomic won consecutive clay court matches on tour was at the Munich Open in 2012 where he made the quarter-finals.

While reaching the third round of the Australian Open, he had only progressed last the first round of an ATP tournament once this year — last week at the Barcelona Open before pulling out with injury against Andy Murray. His last quarter final appearance was the Shenzhen Open in September.

Canadian Ranoic came back from losing a first-set tiebreaker against Briton Aljaz Bedene to win 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 7-6 (7-3) in the second round. The top seed, who was playing for only the second time since February due to injury, prevailed in just over two and a half hours.

Raonic holds a 5-0 head-to-head advantage over Tomic but this will be their first encounter on clay.

Originally published as Tomic set for biggest test of the season