Milos Raonic beats Dustin Brown to advance to second round

Milos Raonic loped into the second round of the Australian Open on Tuesday with a comfortable 6-3 6-4 6-2 victory over Germany's Dustin Brown on Margaret Court Arena.

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The third seeded Canadian never appeared to get out of second gear against the dreadlocked 32-year-old, breaking once in each of the first two sets and then twice in the third to clinch victory in 93 minutes.

Raonic was rarely stretched throughout the match against Brown, whose economy of movement belied a good all-court game and soft touch at the net.

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Raonic, last year's Wimbledon finallist, faces either Gilles Muller of Luxembourg or Taylor Fritz of the United States in the next round.

"It was what it needed to be," Raonic matter-of-factly told reporters of his performance. "It's obviously tough to have necessarily a solid performance all the way through, but I did what I needed to.

"I took care of my serve. I broke quite early in all the sets. I returned pretty solid when I had to. I stepped up, and I played well."

While he was prepared to at least acknowledge he had played well, Raonic's performance was something akin to an anaconda slowly squeezing the life out of its prey.

Highlights: Raonic overcomes Brown to progress

The third seed just applied the pressure when he needed to against Brown, ensuring the 32-year-old had no options and that he was playing back to the Canadian's strengths.

"I was much more solid on the return," added Raonic who faces Gilles Muller in the next round.

"I was able to neutralise quite well ... (and) I felt like he was sort of playing with smaller and smaller margins."

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