@SportsHorn
It didn’t start well but it certainly finished well for sixth seed Milos Raonic. Raonic rallied from two sets to one down to get past tenth seed and future star Alexander Zverev 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, 7-5, 6-1 in the fourth round at Wimbledon.
Raonic, who’s often criticized for his apparent lack of athleticism, has faired well in his career going the distance now with nine wins and six losses in five set matches. He is undefeated in five setters at the All England Club winning all three of his matches the most recent before today, a five set semi-final win over Roger Federer a year ago.
Raonic started the match rather sluggish dropping the opening set but managed to fight his way back in the second. Raonic didn’t have a break point opportunity until the twelfth game of the second set and was able to capitalize to even up the match.
In the third, Zverev was able to break to go up 4-3 and he closed out the set with an ace down the middle to go up in the match. Raonic’s shaky play at the net to this point plus 16 more errors overall proving to be the difference.
A big moment in the fourth set as Raonic saved a break point against him in the first game with an ace, one of 23 in the match. Zverev struggled to convert breaks throughout the match doing so just three times on 17 attempts throughout.
Up 4-3 Raonic had his own chance to go up a break in the set but it was Zverev with a pair of big serves to keep things level. Up 6-5, Zverev was unable to put away a high backhand volley, hitting it wide creating a set point for Raonic. On the next point another error from the 20-year old gave the set to the Canadian forcing a fifth and deciding set.
The fifth set was dominated by Raonic as Zverev appeared to run out of steam. The world No. 7 hit a great winner down the line to break Zverev to go up 3-1 and after the German hit another forehand error Raonic broke again to go up 5-1. Raonic closed out the match after three hours and 23 minutes in the next game.
There was a lot of moments where it didn’t look necessarily to be going my way,” said Raonic. ” I just tried to stick around, tried to show in a way that I just wanted it badly, if not more. It paid off…. That game to break in the fourth was important at 5-6. Then I just got a little bit on a ride after that. He sort of dropped off a bit.”
61 winners, 71 percent first serve and 40 of 67 points at the net was the final stat line for Raonic who advanced to the quarter-finals for the third time in the last four years at Wimbledon. His reward, a rematch against Roger Federer who will be licking his chops after losing to the 26-year old in the semi-finals a year ago.
“I feel like as a shot-for-shot player I’m better. I just feel like I’m still sort of trying to find that rhythm that I had last year, playing a lot of matches consistently. It doesn’t mean it can’t come, but I’ve just got to be sharp each and every point during the next match.”
