Canadian Milos Raonic takes opener at Paris Masters, beating Cameron Norrie

PARIS – Canada’s Milos Raonic has won his first official match since early August.

Raonic, from Thornhill, Ont., downed Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of the Paris Masters on Monday.

Ranked 32nd in the world, Raonic returned from a two-plus-month layoff because of a back injury last week and lost to Hyeon Chung in the opening round of the Erste Bank Open in Austria.

It was a much better performance against world No. 57 Norrie.

Raonic had 14 aces and won 97 per cent of points when he got his first serve in.

Norrie didn’t have one break-point opportunity against Raonic.

The Canadian will face No. 5 seed Dominic Thiem of Austria in the second round.

Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., is the other Canadian in the singles draw. He’ll face Gilles Simon of France in the first round.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 28, 2019.