Milos Raonic looks in excellent form. He has beaten three difficult opponents, Nick Kyrgios, Stan Wawrinka and Pierre-Hugues Herbert, and will now face an even tougher fourth, Alexander Zverev, in the last 16.
Although the Canadian has only dropped one set so far, he has been challenged all the way, and the main reason his matches have remained relatively short is because he has produced his best tennis at key moments.
“I have been pushed,” Raonic said. “I have been having stressful moments in matches that I’ve handled quite well. I think that gives me some ease going into sort of the challenges further along.”
The Canadian continued, “I haven’t had the chance to play that many matches over a long period of time now, so to have that kind of test and to do well I think is pretty good.”
Raonic not sure experience gives him the edge over Zverev
Next, Raonic faces one of the biggest challenges in tennis when he takes on the World No.4. And he is not convinced by any suggestion that his past successes at Grand Slams give him an advantage.
“I think it’s irrelevant because you don’t know how those things are going to play out. That’s on his end of things. I’ve been here quite a few times now, the start of the second week. I’ve got to just focus on the things I know I need to do.”
“If any of this Grand Slam talk has any effect on him, it can creep in, but I can’t impose that kind of pressure on him. I’ve got to use my game to put pressure on him. I don’t know if the situation will get to him or not.”
This approach speaks volumes of Raonic’s level-headed nature, as does his assessment of the dangers of relaxing during his encounter with Herbert after facing two stronger opponents before him.
“It was something that I was well aware of that I didn’t want to let happen. He’s played well this week. He beat Querrey first round, who is a similar player to me and he managed to fend that off. Then he played Chung in the second round, who was defending a run to the semis here, so I knew he was doing things well.”
“He also won the first few matches in the first tournament of the year, I believe, so I knew he had been playing well over the last little while. It could have happened, but it wasn’t an issue today.”
