Raonic waits at Wimbledon; Venus eclipsed
LONDON — Milos Raonic will have to wait until today to finish his third-round match at Wimbledon.
The Canadian split the first two sets with Australian qualifier Dennis Novak and was up 6-5 in the third set before darkness halted play on Friday night. The match will continue today.
Raonic, the No. 13 seed from Thornhill, Ont., won the first set 7-6 (5) before Novak bounced back with a 6-4 victory in the second set.
The win in the opening set was Raonic’s fourth consecutive tiebreak win at the tournament. He won 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4) in the second round against Australia’s John Millman.
The winner of the RaonicNovak match will face American Mackenzie McDonald. The world’s 103rd-ranked player defeated Argentina’s Guido Pella 6-4. 6-4, 7-6 (6).
Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski advanced to the third round of the women’s doubles draw. The sixthseeded team of Dabrowski and Yifan Xu of China downed American Jennifer Brady and Japan’s Shuko Aoyama 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 on Friday.
Also Friday, Venus Williams became the latest former Wimbledon champion to be knocked out.
Her sister Serena is still going strong, though, after overcoming her toughest test so far this week.
Venus couldn’t make it a third consecutive comeback triumph as she lost to 20th-seeded Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands 6-2, 6-7 (5), 8-6 in the third round.
She is the fourth former women’s champion to get knocked out, joining Maria Sharapova, Petra Kvitova and last year’s winner, Garbine Muguruza.
That leaves Serena as the only remaining woman to have won the tournament. The seven-time champion defeated Kristina Mladenovic 7-5, 7-6 (2).