World no.3 Milos Raonic has slammed down the fastest serve of the Australian Open on his way past Dustin Brown into the second round.
Raonic rained down aces in a 6-3 6-4 6-2 destruction of the dangerous German, completed in a tick over an hour-and-a-half.
The Canadian hit 18 aces, including four on his second serve, and another 20 unreturned deliveries in an impressive opener.
The fastest serve of the tournament, clocked at 235km/h, came from one of those second serves.
"I think I was up 40-15. I had some space to go for it a little bit," he said, smiling.
That effort bettered Australian first-round loser Sam Groth's biggest serve of the opening day, at 230km/h.
Raonic made his second grand slam semi-final last year at Melbourne Park but was cruelled by injury deep in his clash with finalist Andy Murray.
After pounding 46 winners against a dazed Brown, the 26-year-old said he was driven to experience the other side of the coin to last year's loss.
"As painful as it was, you sort of understand there is that other side of the spectrum where you can have that kind of joy if you can go through on those moments," he said.
"It's something I'm definitely itching to experience and, obviously, this is the tournament ... I have performed consistently my best at throughout my career."
Raonic said he was especially pleased to minimise court time on a sweltering Melbourne day.
"You want to get in and get out and play as well as you can," he said.
"I took care of my serve. I broke quite early in all the sets.
"Dropped off a little bit where I faced a few sort of dangers on my service games in the beginning of the third, end of the second.
"Other than that, I returned pretty solid when I had to. I stepped up and I played well."
