Kritik und Lob » ance made him the favorite for the GS title

PARIS - Canadian Milos Raonic passed his first test at Roland Garros, powering into the second round of the French Open with a victory over Xavier Malisse on Sunday. The hard-serving 22-year-old from Thornhill, Ont., beat Belgiums Malisse 6-2, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 in the match that was decided in just under two hours. The 14th-seeded Raonic, who reached the third round a year ago, missed on a chance to serve it out leading 5-2 in the fourth set, but quickly won the match on his next chance as he finished with a 16th ace. Raonic roared out to a fast start, winning the first two sets in just 44 minutes combined. "I had my chances early on," he said. "I had a lot of deuce games and two break chances at the end. But I felt like I just let the grip go a little bit. He got into it (in the third set), he was playing well. "I was settling a little bit too much in the rally points hitting backhands, whereas the first two sets I was trying really to find my forehand as much as I could." Raonic converted on six of his nine break chances against the 54th-ranked Malisse and fired 61 winners. The Canadian, who improved his French Open record to 3-2 with the win, awaits the winner of the match between Frances Michael Llodra and Steve Darcis of Belgium. Ivan Ljubicic was among the spectators for Sundays win. The Croatian coach is working with Raonic "as a friend" on a trial basis through Paris after the player split this month with Spaniard Galo Blanco, Raonics coach since late 2010. Temperatures hovered around a chilly 10 C. "Its better than the last few days, for sure, but its pretty cold compared to the conditions I have played in the clay court season until now," Raonic said. Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., Jesse Levine of Ottawa, and Vancouvers Vasek Pospisil all begin their French Open campaigns on Tuesday. Air Force 1 2020 . Any real chance at payback wont come until the playoff. Still, Pittsburgh knows its taut 3-2 win over the Bruins on Wednesday night is a pretty good place to start laying the groundwork. "They are a very good defensive team," Penguins forward Brandon Sutter said. Air Force 1 Low Outlet . Brett Kulak and Jackson Houck of the Vancouver Giants were each charged with assault causing bodily harm on Aug. 18, according to the B.C. court services. https://www.cheapairforce1outlet.com/air-force-1-all-white-outlet/ . For the Wild it was their first win of the season and they now have a record of 1-1-2 while the Jets fall to 2-2. Jets start a six game home stand Friday with another divisional game, home to the Dallas Stars. Air Force 1 Yellow Outlet .S. hockey team after paying his dues as an NHL general manager for more than three decades and giving up a lot of his free time to help USA Hockey. Air Force 1 For Sale . Gerald Green and Miles Plumlee? Green had bounced around the NBA when he wasnt playing overseas. The Pacers gave up on Plumlee after just one season. Now Green and Plumlee are key cogs in the Suns surprising breakout season. SOELDEN, Austria -- Alexis Pinturault carried his outstanding giant slalom form from last year into the new World Cup campaign, dominating the season-opener on Sunday to leave his rivals in awe.Having finished runner-up to Marcel Hirscher in the discipline standings for the past two years, the Frenchman won both runs on the Rettenbach glacier to immediately position himself as the main contender for the title.Its all completely new when you start a new season. Everything youve done before is over, said Pinturault after his commanding victory and his seventh straight podium in GS.Pinturault finished in a two-run time of 2 minutes, 14.01 seconds to lead defending overall champion Hirscher by 0.70. Felix Neureuther of Germany was 1.37 behind in third while Zan Kranjec of Slovenia took fourth for his first career top-10 result.Olympic and world GS champion Ted Ligety improved from 14th position after the opening run to fifth, 1.65 seconds off the lead. The American competed in his first race since tearing the ACL in his right knee nine months ago.Only three of the last 37 World Cup giant slaloms have not been won by Pinturault, Hirscher or Ligety.Pinturault built on his first-run lead to take his 16th career win and seventh in GS, matching the French record set by great Jean-Claude Killy in 1967-68.Thats not really my goal, Pinturault said of chasing records. Jean-Claude is one of the biggest French skiers of all time but there are so many other great skiers. I am just thinking about taking risks and skiing fast.Pinturault was clean in both runs and wasnt hampered by changing conditions. After a sun-soaked opening run, partly cloudy conditions dominated during the final run.One thing is really easy in ski racing, he said. There is no strategy. You always have to push and go faster.Pinturault and Hirscher each won four GS races lastt season, while the Austrian captured the season title in the discipline.ddddddddddddhe Frenchmans convincing performance made him the favorite for the GS title this time, maybe even for the overall title, Hirscher said.If you watch at last years season more in detail, you will see that Alexis in 2016 was dominating. He was flying through the gates, the Austrian said. He is maybe the favorite for the overall. He can ski in all events so for me he is the man to beat.Hirscher, who hinted he wasnt satisfied with his own form in training, said he was super happy with finishing runner-up, especially since recovering from a near-crash halfway down his second run.Third-placed Neureuther also said Pinturault skied in a league of his own.I had two solid runs and did not make too many mistakes but Alexis and Marcel were out of reach today, the German said.After a rather conservative opening run, Ligety showed flashes of his usual strength and used his trademark fast transition from the steep pitch onto the flat finish section to post the third-best time in the final run.Coming fifth made him not euphoric but Ligety said he was definitely happy with fifth place to start it off with coming back from the knee injury that hampered his preparation in the offseason.My body feels good, I dont have any pain in my knee, said Ligety, who won here last year for a record fourth time and has never finished outside the top 10 in 10 starts.Ligety will skip the next race -- a slalom in Levi, Finland, in three weeks -- and fully concentrate on the next GS in Beaver Creek, Colorado, during the first weekend of December.Now I can get a month of miles and high intensity, he said. Hopefully I can pump it up a little bit more then. ' ' '