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After opening with wins, tough road ahead for Canadians

Milos Raonic and Aleksandra Wozniak looked sharp in their Olympic tennis debuts. They'll need to be even better if they want to advance any further in their unforgiving draws at the London Games. Raonic, from Thornhill, Ont.
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Canada's Milos Raonic hits a return against Tatsuma Ito of Japan during early-round action Monday at the London Tennis Centre.

Milos Raonic and Aleksandra Wozniak looked sharp in their Olympic tennis debuts.

They'll need to be even better if they want to advance any further in their unforgiving draws at the London Games.

Raonic, from Thornhill, Ont., opened his first-round match against Japan's Tatsuma Ito with an ace Monday, then cruised to a comfortable 6-3, 6-4 win.

His second-round match will be much different.

Raonic faces World No. 6 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France today.

"Really, my job is just going to be go out there, take care of my serve and try to create opportunities," Raonic said. "But I'm going to have to go out there going for the win. He's not going to give it to me."

Tsonga and Raonic were set to meet in Davis Cup play last February but the Canadian had to pull out with a knee injury. He was replaced by Frank Dancevic, who lost the deciding match in straight sets.

"I think it's going to be a good match," Raonic said. "It was unfortunate and I was sort of bummed out not to have a chance to play him earlier in the year. But right now I don't think there's a bigger stage for us as far as national pride goes.

"So for me to have this opportunity again, I think it's a big one."

Wozniak, from Blainville, Que., also faces a daunting second-round opponent - American star Venus Williams. Wozniak will need to reproduce the form she showed in a decisive 6-2, 6-1 first-round win over New Zealand's Marina Erakovic.

"It's my first Olympics and it's so different than any Grand Slam or any WTA tournament," Wozniak said. "Tennis is such an indi-vidual sport, but [here] it's like you play for your own country. So the first victory for sure, it's for Canada."

In men's doubles, Toronto's Daniel Nestor and Vancouver's Vasek Pospisil advanced to the second round with a 6-3, 7-6 win over Horia Tecau and Adrian Ungur of Romania.

They will also have a strong opponent in the second round. They face the Serbian duo of Nenad Zimonjic - Nestor's former partner on the ATP Tour - and Janko Tipsarevic.

Pospisil seemed confident of Canada's chances.

"I'm playing with one of the best doubles players in the world," he said. "We get fired up and we play some of our best tennis."

? In the pool, Canadians Barbara Jardin and Samantha Cheverton missed out on the final of the women's 200-metre freestyle, finishing 10th and 11th respectively in the semifinal. It was the Olympic debut for both swimmers.

Erica Morningstar of Calgary missed a berth in the 200-metre individual medley semi by one spot, finishing 17th in 2: 14.32.