Wawrinka stormed back to win the third and fourth sets but Raonic was able to close it out in the fifth, finishing the match with 24 aces, 82 winners and five breaks of serve at the showcase Rod Laver Arena.
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Raonic, the No. 13 seed, rolled through the first two sets without much resistance, even breaking his opponent four times.
Raonic, who has not progressed further than the quarter-finals, fought his way into the final eight of the Grand Slam with a 6-4 6-3 5-7 4-6 6-3 triumph. A single break was enough for Raonic to take the first set, his own serve unpenetratable. When I play, I’m in control.
On the women’s side, two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka returned to the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Barbaro Strycova 6-2, 6-4.
The Swiss ace went 2-0 down but rallied to force a deciding set before Raonic completed a 6-4 6-3 5-7 4-6 6-3 victory to book his spot in the quarter-finals. “That’s it”, Wawrinka, who has broken the grip of the established “Big Four” in men’s tennis, said.
Raonic, who now faces Frenchman Gael Monfils, is following through on an impressive start to the season which saw him beat Roger Federer in Brisbane earlier this month. “It’s the next step for me to try and achieve the goals I want to achieve and I am always looking at ways to get better and I am always working for that”.
It was Raonic’s first win against Wawrinka in five meetings, and he has not lost a match at tour level since going down to Rafael Nadal in the third round of last year’s Shanghai Masters. The final score read 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 4-6, 6-3.
Wawrinka said he was feeling drained after an illness in recent days, and was surprised to push Raonic to five.
The Scot will face eighth seed David Ferrer in the quarterfinals, after the Spaniard beat John Isner in straight sets.
In the three matches they played against each other past year, the Maestro won all six sets without dropping one against the Czech. Against a player in Raonic’s form, that simply wasn’t going to cut it, and the Canadian duly broke in the sixth game. He served out his first win over Wawrinka in three hours, 45 minutes. “I think that gave me some kind of calm and some kind of peace inside”.
“During the point, I feel that I can have it. So I just do it because I think I have the ability to do it. But you know, I’m not a rock”. I’m a competitor so when I need to, I just fly.
For the first time since 1977, Britain will have representation in both the men’s and women’s quarter-finals after Johanna Konta battled to victory over Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova.
“It’s very painful”, he told reporters.
“I’m very happy with the way I played, the way I competed”, Raonic said.
The win represents Raonic’s first win against a top-5 player in a Grand Slam.
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The Belorussian could get her stiffest test yet in the quarterfinals when she meets Angelique Kerber, although Azarenka crushed the German seventh seed in the Brisbane finale.
