Raonic produced an irresistible display to beat American Querrey 6-4 7-5 5-7 6-4 in the quarter-finals and set up a clash with seven-times champion Roger Federer in the last four.
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The 34-year-old seven-time champion also claimed a new record for Grand Slam match wins of 307 as he made a 40th semi final at the majors.
Milos Raonic says he’s looking forward to getting another crack at Roger Federer, the Swiss tennis legend who sent him packing with a straight-sets win in the 2014 Wimbledon semifinals. “The dream continues. I fought well and played well at the end”.
For two sets, anyway, that’s how it went.
As for Federer, who is now the oldest man since 1974 to make the Wimbledon semi-finals and draws level with Jimmy Connors’ open era best 11 appearances in the last four, the chance of an eighth title lives on.
On the brink of a shock exit, Murray rallied impressively in the deciding set, screaming out to his box “there’s no way I’m losing this match” before making good on his rallying call.
The other semifinal will feature No. 10 seed Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic against the victor of the Andy Murray-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga match. They gave me so much information to see what I could do, what I couldn’t do, how I could play, how I couldn’t play.
Gutsy Federer was two sets down and looked dead and buried FOUR times against Marin Cilic. Suddenly, everything was even at two sets apiece, and while Cilic is 7 years younger, it was Federer who thrived as the match moved past the 3-hour mark, grabbing the last three games.
Federer holds the 9-2 lifetime edge against Raonic, but the Canadian is eager for another chance to prove his worth on the biggest stage in tennis. But then he got some easy first-week matches and Sam Querrey beat Novak Djokovic on Saturday, and now the door was open for him.
Ivanisevic was tearing his hair out in the players’ box, particularly after Cilic’s squandered match points, two of which came on the Federer second serve. “I’m glad I was able to get back on the right path after he won the third”, Raonic said. For one thing, Federer hasn’t been great when he loses the first two sets.
It means Federer has reached a record-equalling 11th semi-final at the All England Club and he will play Canada’s Milos Raonic for a place in Sunday’s showpiece match.
“I was in so much trouble in the third, and again in the fourth”, a still-breathless Federer said in his off-the-court BBC interview. “I’m just going to try to keep going, put my foot down on the gas pedal”. “I’m really pleased and ecstatic that I was able to come through somehow”. “He was playing very well and reading my serve and I couldn’t read his”. Had he not succumbed to injury, Raonic might have defeated Andy Murray in the Australian Open semifinals rather than lose in five sets.
“Well, a lot happened out there”, Federer said.
Cruising to 6-4, Federer shovelled a forehand long before Cilic earned a third match point.
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Federer, facing three break points that might as well have been match points, used his serve (which both players had used to dig out of service-game deficits throughout the match – there were 50 aces) to save a few, but got gifts – absolute gifts – from Cilic at 0-40 and 40-40.
