Milos Raonic has cemented his status as one of the golden era’s rising stars of tennis, becoming the first Canadian man to reach a Wimbledon-and Grand Slam-final. But Federer fought back, winning the second set in a tie breaker, 7-3, and gaining strength in the third when he broke Raonic’s serve and went on to win 6-4.
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Raonic, seeded sixth and the first Canadian man to ever reach a major final, will face either Andy Murray or Tomas Berdych on Sunday.
In his previous Grand Slam semifinal match, Raonic lost to Murray at this year’s Australian Open. But the 25-year-old Raonic, the first man from Canada to reach a Grand Slam final, cast aside that break point with a 139 miles per hour service victor. He’s still tied with Pete Sampras and 1880s player William Renshaw with seven.
The knight missed his compatriot swapped service breaks with the 2010 finalist early in the set before Berdych hooked a forehand into the tramlines to allow the world No 2 to serve for the set at 5-3.
From them on there only seemed to be one victor and, after firing down 23 aces, with his fastest serve being clocked at 144 mph, Raonic bagged a place in the final when Federer floated a exhausted forehand long to end the three hours 25 minutes duel.
Swiss great Federer, who is chasing his 18th Grand Slam title and an eighth at All England Club, fought back from one set, and took a 2-1 lead before Raonic won the last two sets.
The 6-foot-5 Raonic, known for his serve, broke Federer in the fifth set with impressive hustle and movement. I feel pretty calm just now, maybe because of the way the match went. But the Canadian found a way out, saving four set points to force a tiebreak. The rest of the team that’s working with me has helped get me into this position. He was quoted saying by BBC: “I can’t believe I served a double fault twice”.
“The 10 sets I played the last two matches really gives me the belief that I’m much more match fit or tougher physically than I thought I was”.
Besides Wimbledon in 2013, he won the 2012 U.S. Open.
“The older you get you never know how many chances you are going to get in grand slam finals so you want to take every opportunity”.
Roger Federer double-faulted on break point, giving Milos Raonic the early lead in the Wimbledon semifinals.
“It’s an incredible comeback from me really”, he said. “No, playing five sets, my matches tend to be quite quick”, Raonic said. After a forehand victor by Raonic, the unthinkable: Those back-to-back double-faults to let Raonic back into the game. Federer couldn’t put a return in play on the first three points.
Murray said that he will now relax by watching a bit of tennis, get a good night’s sleep and then “come back firing on Sunday”.
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There will also be added attention on McEnroe renewing his rivalry with Ivan Lendl, Murray’s coach whom he faced 10 times in major tournaments.
