Milos Raonic is hoping he can take his opportunity to win his first Grand Slam when he takes on Andy Murray at Wimbledon on Sunday.
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The Scot is massive favourite to clinch his second title at SW19 and complete a hat-trick of major victories but insisted he is taking nothing for granted against the massive serving Canadian, who beat Roger Federer to make the first Slam final of his career.
Murray will contest his 11th final, drawing him level with three greats of the game in Stefan Edberg, John McEnroe and Mats Wilander, and his third in a row.
He beat seven-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer to reach the final and the Canadian is determined to take his chance this weekend.
“He gives himself a great opportunity and he does all the right things and he plays well on all surfaces so I am not surprised that he is one of the big contenders this time, especially at Wimbledon”.
Federer, whose last Grand Slam crown came at Wimbledon in 2012, had already required five sets to get past Marin Cilic in the quarter-finals, saving three match points in the process.
“So hopefully it continues that way”.
I’d suggest not enough to get the better of Murray, who has now beaten Raonic in their last five meetings, on grass, clay, outdoor hard and indoor hard.
With former world No 1s Carlos Moya and John McEnroe in his support camp, Raonic has no shortage of role models or advice, he just needs to convert that into grand slam success.
“I think you disregard that very quickly”, said Raonic.
That’s because while he did defeat Djokovic for both the 2012 U.S. Open championship and the 2013 Wimbledon championship – famously becoming the first British man to hold the trophy in 77 years – Murray has lost all eight of his other previous major finals.
“When I played my first one, it all came round really quickly for me”. Raonic will be playing in his first ever Grand Slam final.
Milos Raonic has warned Andy Murray he will not be “sucked into his game” when the pair do battle in the Wimbledon final on Sunday. I love the way you didn’t get a feeling that Berdych had a chance of coming into the match.
“I was fortunate enough to play all my matches on Centre Court”.
“I don’t think he’d be doing this job if he didn’t believe in me and believe that I could win these events, because he doesn’t need to”.
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The sixth-seeded Raonic heads into the first Grand Slam title match of his career – and the first for a man representing Canada – having won 116 of his 121 service games (96 percent) across six matches. “This one clearly hurts because I felt I could have had it. So close, so close it really really hurts”. I mentioned that a lot beforehand.
