Roger Federer lost in the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time in his career, falling to Milos Raonic 6-3, 6-7 (3), 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 on Centre Court.
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The third-seeded Federer, who owns a record 17 Grand Slam men’s singles titles, was denied a chance to set the all-time record for Wimbledon men’s crowns.
There are no such issues this time and surely only an attack of nerves can stop the Scot from justifying favouritism and rewarding outright backers at [4.3] when he takes on Milos Raonic on Sunday afternoon.
Andy Murray finished runner-up in the previous two grand slam events this year, losing to Novak Djokovic both times in the final. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.theeagleonline.com.ng as the source. I’m glad I managed to get through today.
Raonic certainly will. The serve is his weapon.
Federer saved two set points before Raonic hit a backhand passing shot down the line to send the match into a fifth. “I took care of my serve as much as I could and I needed to find a way to be a bit more efficient on returning. Very sad about that, and angry with myself because never should I allow him to get out of that set that easily”.
“John McEnroe [Raonic’s coach] told me to go out there and leave it all out there – and that’s what got me through”.
Andy Murray has reached his 11th grand slam final with a victory over Tomas Berdych in the semi final at the All England Club.
However, this time around the second-seeded Murray is listed as a large -400 favorite (bet $400 to win $100) to win against sixth-seeded Canadian Milos Raonic at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark.
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. That pushed Murray into the final to face Raonic, with the Brit looking for his second Wimbledon championship as a -400 favourite at the sportsbooks.
And he came to Wimbledon with only a 16-6 match record and zero titles in 2016, the first time since 2000 that he went this far into a season without winning a tournament.
The second seed, who has won two of his 10 finals, said: “Maybe I’m now more excited than when I was younger”. “Mentally I had one of my best matches in my career and I think that’s what made the biggest difference”.
Lendl said Sunday’s final was not about him and McEnroe: “I understand it does (add spice) for everyone else but me”. It will, of course, be something that Murray can draw on but in a unusual way it will also help Raonic. The former No. 1 put up a significant fight against Raonic, although many felt this was Federer’s best – and closest- chance to winning an 18 title. That’s going to be the most important thing for me.
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. I don’t think he’d be doing this job if he didn’t believe in me and believe that I could do it.
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“There’s no doubt Milos Raonic will be a very tough final opponent, after all he beat Roger Federer on Centre Court to get there”.
