CINCINNATI, OH – He had quite a memorable July, reaching the final at Wimbledon and becoming the first Canadian male to reach a grand-slam final. Then, while he was unable to get past the quarter-final, he returned home to Toronto to make some noise at Rogers Cup. But a month that hectic deserves some rest and, as a result, Milos Raonic decided to sit out the Olympics. But on Wednesday, the Canadian was back in action in a successful way, defeating John Isner 7-6. 7-6.

A recipient of a first-round bye, Raonic entered Cincinnati's Western & Southern Open facing the American – a man who, in three tries, he had never defeated. On Wednesday, though, the fourth time would be the charm, but the lanky Isner made sure that Raonic earned the victory.

In two marathon sets, Raonic gave everything he had to defeat Isner. In their previous seven sets head-to-head, five had gone to tiebreaks. Wednesday proved to be no different.

The 25-year-old Canadian was in tough against Isner, who eliminated Italy's Fabio Fognini 6-3, 6-2 on Tuesday to advance to the second round. But whatever rust Raonic had from his layoff, he shook it off fairly quickly as the Canadian and the American battled back and forth all afternoon. But it was Raonic defeating Isner for the first time in his career.

With the win, Raonic advances to the Round-of-16 where he will await the winner of the Yuichi Sugita-Nicolas Mahut matchup scheduled for Thursday.

Some wondered just how Raonic would fare after his layoff. Despite the momentum he had gained prior to the Olympics, it was anyone's guess as to how Raonic would fare in his return. But while he had to battle to defeat his opponent on Wednesday, the tournament's fourth-seed persevered as he started on the right foot in preparation for the final Grand Slam of the year - the U. S. Open.