Sixth seed Milos Raonic reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon after winning a huge battle against Belgium’s David Goffin 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
It was the fourth meeting between the two players, with the Canadian leading the head to head 3-1. Nevertheless, their latest encounter was more special for Raonic, who recovered from two sets down for the first time in his career.
Goffin started strong and managed to break the sixth seed (who was yet to be broken in the tournament) three times in the first two sets to take a two sets lead on a Raonic double fault.On the brink of defeat, the sixth seed began his comeback. The Canadian 25-year-old broke in the beginning of the third and after a rain suspension, held his nerves to take the set 6-4. In the last two sets the Belgian didn’t convert his only break chance and lost his serve twice, with Raonic serving strong. Raonic’s tactic of more attacking play payed off as he won 38 points at the net out of 58 approaches (compared to just 18 by Goffin) and hit 53 winners.
“I allowed him to play too much on his terms, and I had to take that away from him,” the Canadian said after the match, “It’s OK. I understood what we were getting into when I asked him to help me. You know, I’m out there playing by myself. Nobody can win those points for me. But he’s enforcing things for me, talking about my attitude on court – telling me to impose myself more, make sure the other guy knows you’re there. I saw him just now because he finished his commentating responsibility for the day, and he’ll be there for practice tomorrow because we practise before he has any matches to call.”
In the quarter-finals, the sixth seed will face Novak Djokovic’s conqueror Sam Querrey, who continued his wild run by ousting the French serve and volleyer Nicolas Mahut 6-4 7-6(5) 6-4, hitting 23 aces. After an exchange of breaks, the American made the decisive one on 5-4 to take the first set. Mahut had his chance to level the match when he found himself 3-2 up in the second set tie-break, but he could not find a first serve and lost the next two points with some bad unforced errors. After making the break in the first game of the third, Querrey easily served the match out and he will play his first grand slam’s quarter-finals in singles. For Mahut, court 18 continued to be an awful place for him.
Tomer Berdych’s quest to reach a fourth quarter-final at SW19 hangs in the balance. Facing compatriot Jiri Vesely, the marathon match was halted at two sets all due to bad light. The world No.9 had five match points in the fourth set, but he failed to convert any of them as an inspired Vesely closed the set out 11-9 in a thrilling tiebreaker. Berdych asked for the match to be continued on the centre court under the roof, however, the tournament supervisor refused his request. Proceedings will resume on Tuesday afternoon.
