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Murray, 29, will compete in his 11th major final when he plays Milos Raonic in the men’s Wimbledon final on Sunday. The only Canadian to ever advance to a Grand Slam singles final before Raonic was Westmount’s Eugenie Bouchard, who lost the 2014 Wimbledon women’s final 6-3, 6-2 to the Czech Republic’s Petra Kvitova.
Andy Murray will hope to continue his winning run against Tomas Berdych as he bids for a place in a third Wimbledon final. But he has lost the other eight times he has reached the championship match at a Grand Slam tournament.
Raonic, originally from Thornhill, Ont., is headed to his first career Grand Slam final after defeating Swiss star Roger Federer in a breakthrough semifinal performance.
And, if Murray needed any more convincing that this will be the year when he adds to his 2012 US Open and 2013 Wimbledon titles, it is seeing Ivan Lendl back in his coaching corner.
“The older you get, you never know how many more chances you will get so you’ve got to make the most of your opportunities”.
It will be Murray’s 11th Grand Slam final, breaking Fred Perry’s British record.
Federer fell just short of an 85th match win at Wimbledon, which would have put him in sole possession of the record of 84 he now shares with Jimmy Connors.
Murray, who has won his last four matches against Berdych, is more familiar with this territory.
Murray’s most recent encounter with the big-serving Raonic came in the pre-Wimbledon warm-up event at Queen’s Club when he beat him in a fiercely-contested final having trailed.
“This one clearly hurts because I felt I could have had it. So close”.
Tennis Canada also has a hand in shaping Canadian players – the organization has helped arrange for high-profile former tour players to coach promising young Canadians like Raonic and Bouchard.
“There’s no guarantees that I’ll win on Sunday but obviously I wanted to work with Ivan again to try to help me win these events”.
Murray broke Raonic’s serve only once in the match, while the Canadian had some chances in the third set but failed to convert.
Playing Raonic rather than perennial crowd favourite Federer means Murray is guaranteed to have virtually the whole of Centre Court behind him. “I was struggling throughout the third and fourth sets, he was playing some really good tennis and just on a little opening I managed to turn it around and finish it off in a great match”, said the sixth seed. It’s against someone new that I’m playing against in the final.
However Raonic then stepped up to the plate, taking the last two sets of the match 7-5, 6-3 to record what is no doubt the best win of his career to date.
“An incredible comeback for me, really”, Raonic said. “Yes, I hope to be back on Centre Court, to be very clear for you”, he finished.
It is pretty obvious that he has one of the best serves out there so my returning will be key. “So I just have to go out there and concentrate on my side, do what I can to prepare well for it and see what happens”. I think it was a good two weeks [that] definitely show me that’s the way to do it, that’s the way to go.
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“To do it twice here, an event where there is a lot of pressure on me to perform well, I’m very proud”.
