Milos Raonic guts out 4-set win at U.S. Open

Canada's Milos Raonic is through to the third round of the U.S. Open after defeating Spain's Fernando Verdasco 6-2, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (1).

Raonic, seeded 10th in New York, needed just 26 minutes to win the first set. But it soon became clear 24-year-old from Thornhill, Ont., who has battled injuries this season, was playing in discomfort.

He received treatment during a medical timeout in the second set and also received massages during some of the changeovers.

"There were sometimes doubts, should I keep going or not," Raonic said. "The worst part was it was sort of getting worse and worse.

"It is what it is. Deal with it and move on."

He was able to fight through the injuries, and, after dropping his first set of the tournament in the third, cruised to an easy win in the fourth-set tiebreak.

Raonic fired 18 aces to Verdasco's 16 and broke the Spaniard on three of seven chances while saving all four break points he faced.

"When I saw that I was able to hold serve, I guess I was always going to give myself some kind of a chance," Raonic said.

He said doctors have told him his recent discomfort is unrelated to the foot injury that kept him out of the French Open earlier this year.

Raonic will face another Spaniard, 18th-seed Feliciano Lopez, in the third round. Lopez advanced with a five-set victory over Mardy Fish in what turned out to be the last match of the veteran American's career. Fish said he would retire after the U.S. Open.

"I accomplished everything that I set out to this summer," the 33-year-old American said, "and I'm happy about that."

Djokovic keeps rolling

Novak Djokovic simply does not lose second-round Grand Slam matches.

The No. 1-seeded Serb took a bit of time to get going, splitting the opening eight games, before reeling off 14 of the remaining 17 in a 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 victory over 52nd-ranked Andreas Haider-Maurer of Austria.

"From the four-all moment," Djokovic said, "I played really well."

Now there's an understatement.

It was Djokovic's 29th consecutive victory in the second round at a major, a streak that dates to 2008. He owns nine Grand Slam titles, including at the 2011 U.S. Open.

Next for Djokovic is a match against Andreas Seppi of Italy.

Good start for Nadal

Fourteen-time major champion Rafael Nadal was pushed by 74th-ranked Diego Schwartzman of Argentina but was able to pull out the victory in straight sets on a humid day. He won 7-6 (5), 6-3, 7-5 in 2 hours, 41 minutes.

Nadal, who was upset by 102nd-ranked Dustin Brown in the second round at Wimbledon, trailed 5-3 in the first-set tiebreaker but won the last four points.

"To take the first set was very, very important," he said in an on-court interview.

Win, lose day in men's doubles

In men's doubles, Toronto's Daniel Nestor and Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France dropped Australia's Chris Guccione and Andre Sa of Brazil 6-4, 6-4 to advance to the second round.

Meanwhile, Vasek Pospisil of Vernon, B.C., and American Jack Sock fell 6-4, 6-7 (10), 5-7 to Argentina's Leonardo Mayer and Joao Sousa of Portugal.