Opener no sweat for Raonic
Canadian shakes off some rust in winning in straight sets
There was a wicked slashing approach shot down the line, with a hint of slide in it.
A beautiful volley to close out the second set with aplomb.
An ace and an ace and an un-returnable ball to slither away from three consecutive break point threats in the third.
And a mighty thwack of that missile serve, which had no chance of coming back over the net, all but freezing his opponent where he stood, on the grass, in the close-out tie-break.
That was all to the good in the opening match that brought Milos Raonic to jumbo-sized Court 1 on Tuesday after- noon at Wimbledon. And all to the increasingly better — apart from a late stage concentration wobble — as the confrontation with Jan-Lennard Struff progressed to its 2-hour, 16-minute straight set win for the Canadian, 7-6(5), 6-2, 7-6(4).
But as an indicator of where Raonic’s game is at, one year removed from his Wimbledon final — first Grand Slam last-two-men standing of his career — there was precious little to be gauged.
Struff came into the encounter riding a nine-match losing streak at the majors. His world ranking is 53, compared to Raonic’s No. 7 (seeded sixth). And while the German proved sporadically nervy, especially forcing Raonic into that thirdset tiebreak, converting his first and only break in four chances with Raonic serving out for the match, it was hardly a gritty test for the big bopper from Thornhill.
Although, a big bopper who got ignominiously bounced from his pre-Wimbledon grass court tune-up at Queen’s Club a fortnight ago, losing to 698thranked Thanasi Kokkinakis.
They don’t get more outlier than that.
Through injury (hamstring and hip issues), premature expulsion and withdrawal (five of those so far this year), Raonic arrived in Wimbledon rather match-rusty, simultaneously having slipped from a career-high ranking of No. 3 in the world, which is how he left SW19 after last passing this way, albeit firmly set aside in straight sets by the triumphant Andy Murray.
“I did a lot of things well,” Raonic, sporting his new-ish headband accessory — a constraining imposition on his famously perfect and un-moving hair —asserted afterwards.
(“The Sleeve” by the way, a sheath Raonic long wore over his playing arm, in part to protect from sunburn — a lesson learned the hard way — but almost mostly for superstitious luck, has been AWOL. “I had it in my bag but I didn’t bring it out today.” There’s a scoop.)
“I have to be happy with just progressing through. Obviously I would have wished to have had more matches on grass leading into this tournament. I’m happy with the way I dealt with things. I didn’t make the most of the tournaments. Beginning of the first set felt like a déjà vu of two weeks ago.”
That’s a reference to Queen’s splatter, similarly decided — to Raonic’s detriment — on tie-breaks which play right to his serving wheelhouse.
Grass, which normally emphasizes the velocity impact on his serves, requires adjustment for all players as the season turns from clay courts, even for grass masters such as Roger Federer.
“Also on grass, the margins for concentration that you can really let slip up . . . because the opportunities are further apart,” continues Raonic, in the fractured way he has of speaking. “It’s a bit more demanding. So, not having that constant back-toback match play, going through those situations many times over, I think that’s where it kind of showed.”
To be clear, Raonic — who’s never dropped an opener at Wimbledon — wasn’t for more than a fleeting few minutes back on his heels in this match.
However, he couldn’t find his familiar rhythm, the pacing, until the second set. It was, especially for the impatient crowd watching — first time Raonic got booked into an elite show court this early at the All England Club — a pedestrian affair. Certainly nothing that loudly proclaimed: ‘I’M BACK!’
The 2016 men’s Wimbledon finalist, after all, and vanquisher of Federer in a memorable five-setter en route, though some have apparently yet to forgive him for that.
Yet the Milos launch here Tuesday, his presence hereabouts the last few weeks, has attracted scant attention from the tennis gallery.
Asked if he’s not been afford the respect he deserves, Raonic was curtly dismissive. “I haven’t given it thought, nor do I think it really matters. I go out there just trying to win. I’m not too worried on other people’s perception.” As if. At age 26, with the Big Four of the tennis game overhead and the “New Gen” hot-shots pushing from behind, it’s widely felt that Raonic needs to step up before he’s forced to step aside as a Grand Slam contender.
John McEnroe, who was lured aboard as a coach-mentor last year — returned to the TV booth fulltime again — was supposed to help Raonic take that crucial final stride. But asked on air before Tuesday’s broadcast what his ex-pupil needed to do to reach the next level, McEnroe intriguingly replied: “Oh geez, how much time have you got?”
McEnroe’s impact, a deferential Raonic counters, still resonates.
“I think the mental side of things always brought a lot of attention. So today it was something that I wanted to make sure that I did a lot better, considering I haven’t always been playing my best over the last few weeks. It was important that at least I put my mind into it, and hopefully the body follows.”
Raonic has gone through nearly a 12-case of coaches and, most recently, added longtime doubles player Mark Knowles to the crew, a puzzling choice. “He’s helped me out on a lot of things, especially from how other players perceive different changes of rhythm that I may be able to enforce throughout a match.’’ Translation please. “Things that I can to help benefit myself throughout a match, not only looking at it from the perspective of how I do feel but also paying attention to the aspect of how does my opponent feel in these situations, trying to feed off that as well.”
Don’t have a clue what that means. But Raonic probably figured out what Struff was feeling by the end off the first set tiebreak, swapping mini-breaks, blazing into the second set by twice breaking Struff, likewise cracking open the third set with a break, though the German finally broke back in the 10th game, held serve, and forced tiebreak 2, wherein Raonic took five consecutive points on his serve, ultimately kneecapping Struff with a two-hand backhander down the line.
Next up is 35-year-old Russian Mikhail Youzhny.
“Internal discipline for myself to be able to impose and dictate with my game is going to be the most important thing for me.” Huh? “Lost to him the last time we played.”