Milos Raonic advances to 3rd round at Madrid Open

Canadian Milos Raonic defeated Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 6-4, 6-4 to advance to the Madrid Open Round of 16 Wednesday morning. 

• Milos Raonic falls to Marin Cilic in Istanbul Open final
• Milos Raonic returns from injury with win at Istanbul Open

The victory was the Canadian's second win in four matches against the 26th-ranked Muller.

After reaching the Istanbul Open final last week, Raonic looks to continue his strong play when he lines up against ninth-seeded Belgian David Goffin on Thursday.

Following a six-week layoff due to an injured hamstring, Raonic has looked spry in his return, winning four of five matches and dropping just three sets in the process.

Defending champion Novak Djokovic recovered from a 3-0 deficit in the third set to defeat Nicolas Almagro 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 and join Raonic in the third round.

Djokovic rallied in the final set by breaking Almagro to go up 6-5 and served out to earn his 15th win of the season in over two hours.

The second-seeded Djokovic will next play either Gilles Simon of France or Feliciano Lopez of Spain.

Djokovic cruised in the first set by breaking the 76th-ranked Almagro three times. The Spanish wild card entrant rallied in front of the home crowd in the second set, saving all four break points he conceded and breaking at 4-5 to eventually extend the match.

Almagro was two points away from going up 4-2 in the final set but was not able to capitalize on his chances.

It was an important opening-round win for the second-ranked Djokovic as he tries to turn his season around and regain his form going into the French Open later this month.

"When you're not winning too many matches, you have to build the confidence level," Djokovic said. "So to win the matches like this definitely helps confidence."

He won in Doha to start the season but never made it past the quarterfinals in the following four tournaments he played. In his first clay-court tournament, in Monte Carlo, Djokovic was eliminated by Goffin in quarterfinals.

"I'm still finding my way to that consistency level and quality of tennis that I'm looking for," Djokovic said. "I'm aware that I'm not playing at my best, but I'm definitely believing in myself and the process. Eventually the game will come together. I can take a lot of positives from today."

Djokovic had his playing time diminished this year because of an elbow injury. Wednesday's match was his first since splitting with longtime coach Marian Vajda.