Two, actually. Already being coached by Carlos Moya, who won the 1998 French Open, and Ricardo Piatti, Raonic has added three-time Wimbledon victor John McEnroe as a consultant. “But I do hope to be back on Centre Court next year”.
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Three weeks after losing a three-set tussle to Murray at Queen’s Club, Raonic will get a chance to execute his plan as the two clash in Sunday’s Wimbledon final. He won the 2012 U.S. Open but has lost the other eight times he has reached the championship match at a Grand Slam tournament.
No Canadian has ever won a major Grand Slam singles championship.
“It’s the first time I’ll play a slam final against someone that isn’t Roger or Novak”.
While Murray sailed through against Berdych in one hour and 58 minutes, Raonic spent three hours and 25 minutes coming through an emotionally draining encounter with Federer.
Williams is a heavy -400 favorite versus fourth-seeded Angelique Kerber, who ousted her sister Venus 6-4, 6-4 in the semis.
This also happened to be FedEx’s first defeat in a Wimbledon semi final.
The 2013 champion broke his opponent twice in the set, including to take a 5-3 lead.
That break put Raonic in firm control, and he stayed on top the rest of the set and served out the match at love. Maybe this time Federer ran out of steam, forced to play 10 sets in his last two matches, including a quarterfinal comeback from two sets down against Marin Cilic on Wednesday.
The 34-year-old Federer had been 10-0 in Wimbledon semifinals, winning seven of his finals.
Raonic said his thrilling five-set victory over Federer had not taken too much out of him before he prepared to meet a player with whom he has a 6-3 head-to-head deficit.
During the changeover, Federer had his right leg looked at by a trainer.
“I was fortunate enough to play all my matches on Centre Court”.
Roger Federer had been carefully calibrating expectations before Wimbledon began.
The 29-year-old Murray beat Raonic 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-3 in the final at Queen’s Club and has a 6-3 overall record against Raonic.
The win is especially satisfying for the sixth-seeded Raonic, who suffered a straight-sets semifinal loss to the Swiss star two years ago.
Sure, it’s hard to be critical when going down to the likes of Djokovic, Nadal, Murray and Federer, but the 2010 Wimbledon finalist will be hoping he adds a few more to the “W” column in the future. He also won the first two sets 6-4, 7-6 (3).
Raonic’s booming serve was not firing on all cylinders because he served 11 double faults although some were probably because he was going for big second serves knowing how good Federer is at bunting returns back into play.
Raonic is happy to see McEnroe keep up his media work, insisting that the colourful American always checks with him first if he believes there may be a conflict.
Murray goes up against Milos Raonic, the big-serving Canadian playing in his first major final. “I was down a set and a break but I managed to turn it around”.
However, he is one of four Britons to reach this year’s finals at the All England Club.
It was a controlled and well constructed demolition, the downbeat expression on the Czech player’s face reflecting Murray’s miserly approach to the semi-final.
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Federer, bidding for a record eighth title, has never lost a Wimbledon semifinal.
