Raonic reaches third round at Wimbledon

Milos Raonic’s big serve has powered the Canadian to another victory at Wimbledon.

The No. 13 seed advanced to the third round of the grass-court Grand Slam with a 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4) victory over unseeded Australian John Millman Wednesday.

Raonic, who said he was battling a virus, had just four break-point opportunities in the match, winning one.

But Millman did next to nothing against Raonic’s serve, converting on one of two break-point chances. Raonic had 34 aces, compared to only three for Millman.

“For the first set and a half I didn’t really create much, especially on his serve,” Raonic said. “But overall, happy to be through and happy to be moving on.”

A return to Wimbledon for the 2016 finalist seems to have given the 27-year-old from Thornhill, Ont., a boost after several injury setbacks.

“I feel good. Body has behaved,” Raonic said. “I feel good, moving well on court.

“And hopefully, my body allows me to play plenty of tennis.”

Raonic faces qualifier Dennis Novak, ranked 171st in the world, who beat Canadian Peter Polansky.

Gabriela Dabrowski of Ottawa and partner Yifan Xu of China saw their match suspended. The duo were tied at one set apiece and trailing 3-2 in the third set to Alison Riske and Olga Savchuk.

Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., and No. 26 seed Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., play their next singles matches Thursday.

Meanwhile, Roger Federer won 35 straight points on his serve and beat Lukas Lacko 6-4, 6-4, 6-1.

On the women’s side, Australian Open champ Caroline Wozniacki lost 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 to Ekaterina Makarova of Russia.

Serena Williams notched a 6-1, 6-4 win over Viktoriya Tomova. Venus Williams and Karolina Pliskova also advanced.