The 25-year-old Raonic breezed through two sets early Monday then had to dig deep to survive a 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 4-6, 6-3 win that lasted three hours and 45 minutes on Rod Laver Arena.
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Many feel Raonic is poised to make a serious run at the title.
Isner has his work cut out for him, but one of the immutable laws of tennis is that if your serve is big enough, anything is possible.
Raonic held in the next game, clinching it with an ace, and Wawrinka saved a match point in his next service game. While that was juxtaposed by six double-faults, Wawrinka actually eclipsed that number with nine and had only 58 percent of his first serves go into play. He finished the match with a volley after running Wawrinka, the No. 4 seed, off the court near the umpire’s chair.
After the Swiss drew level by claiming the fourth – to the crowd’s fervent approval – a Raonic toilet break might have settled the 13th seed.
Raonic loves to hit winners. The eighth seeded Spaniard broke once each in all three sets to give himself a straight sets’ win to the quarter-finals. When she heard Denver had beaten the New England Patriots 20-18 in the AFC championship, she shouted “Yesss!!” – stepping back and raising both arms, “I’m so happy now”.
“I was so nervous the whole morning, I didn’t watch”.
“It was something definitely I felt was necessary”, he said.
“But it’s not an excuse, because once I got out there I was feeling pretty good”. The next stop for Newton and the Panthers is Super Bowl 50, against the Broncos. Azarenka has already shown some allegiance to Newton, doing her version of the “dab” in her victory celebrations.
Told the Panthers were well ahead of the Cardinals in the NFC decider, Azarenka said “Well then, it’s going to be my dream final, I can’t wait to see that”.
Wawrinka, who won his first Grand Slam title in Melbourne two years ago, wielded his signature one-handed backhand to devastating effect against Lukas Rosol as he rolled the Czech 6-2, 6-3, 7-6 (7/3).
“She’s such a tough opponent”. I had a little bit of a cold. No. 8-seeded Ferrer beat strong-serving John Isner 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 in their fourth-round match.
Raonic lost to Djokovic in the quarterfinals here past year.
“Maybe it’s a good omen”. Isner has 101 aces so far in Melbourne and, more importantly, hasn’t allowed a break point.
Murray’s wife, Kim, is due to have their first baby next month, and Murray has long said he’ll leave the tournament any time if he has to rush back to Britain to be with her. The sudden illness for Kim’s father, Nigel Sears, in Melbourne had the two-time champion again reconsidering whether to stay or go.
He will face Frenchman Gael Monfils in the last eight, who completed a 7-5 3-6 6-3 7-6 (4) success over Andrey Kuznetsov earlier in the day.
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No. 2-seeded Andy Murray, a four-time finalist at Melbourne Park, plays local hope Bernard Tomic in the opening night match, followed by American Madison Key’s match against Chinese qualifier Zhang Shuai.
