Raonic is out in England after tough five-set loss
WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND — Three years ago in the fourth round at Wimbledon, Canadian Milos Raonic came back from a twosets-to-none deficit for the first time in his career to beat Belgium’s David Goffin in five sets.
On Monday, Raonic found himself on the losing side of a strikingly similar scenario when he was defeated after leading two sets to none in the fourth round at Wimbledon by Argentina’s Guido Pella. It’s the first time in his tennis career that Raonic has lost a match after winning the first two sets.
The 28-year-old from Thornhill, Ont., bowed out 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3), 8-6 to Pella, a player seven months older than Raonic who, in 12 years as a pro, had never advanced beyond the third round of any Grand Slam tournament. Now he’s in the Wimbledon quarter-finals.
Raonic said he simply ran out of gas. “I wasn’t efficient and wasn’t able to play the way I needed to,” said Raonic, who fired 33 aces among his 80 winners and won 74 of 110 points at the net. “He started getting in more points and I had to find a way to create like I did early on in the match.”
As the match went on, Pella found his range and started landing his returns at Raonic’s feet far more often. The resulting volleys were difficult ones, and Raonic couldn’t make enough of them.
It had to have helped that Pella faced — and defeated — another big server in the previous round in No. 4 seed Kevin Anderson of South Africa.
Despite his physical woes, Raonic still had every chance to win. He served for the match in the third set but was broken. And in the fifth set, he saved three match points. But the Canadian couldn’t save the fourth.
This was the first five-set match Raonic had played since the U.S. Open last summer, and only his second since he defeated Alexander Zverev in the fourth round at the All-England Club a year ago.
Another Canadian in action Monday was more successful.
Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and her Chinese partner, Yifan Xu, avenged a heartbreaking loss to Yingying Duan and Saisai Zheng of China in the quarter-finals of the French Open by defeating them, 7-5, 6-3.
The pair, seeded fourth, advanced to the quarter-finals of the ladies’ doubles before Dabrowski and partner Mate Pavic of Croatia even began their mixed doubles campaign. The pair, seeded third, had a bye in the first round.