Top seed’s defeat spurs Raonic to big-hitting victory over Sock
Powerful Canadian spies chance as draw opens up Murray forced to wait on result of Kyrgios v Lopez
Novak Djokovic’s shock defeat has created a huge opportunity for those players on the No1 seed’s side of the draw, and Milos Raonic took a considerable stride towards exploiting it as he brushed aside Jack Sock in an attritional encounter on Centre Court.
Raonic, the runner-up at Queen’s last month, was due to meet Djokovic in the quarter-finals, but will now set his sights on bettering his memorable run to the semi-finals in 2014. “I stepped up when I needed to,” Raonic said. “There wasn’t a lot of pretty tennis out there, but I got it done, and I got it done in three sets. That makes a difference down the road.” Asked about Djokovic’s exit, he said: “It was a surprise. You know where you stand with that, so you push a little harder.”
With a passion for the workings of Andy Warhol and Ai Weiwei, the 6ft 5in Raonic is known to be one of the more cerebral players on the circuit. But he was at his brutish best against Sock, serving 27 aces, including 135mph second serves, and hitting 60 winners on his way to a 7-6, 6-4, 7-6 victory.
Raonic’s monster serve had not been broken in the tournament before this match, and his opponent was not afforded even a sniff of a break point in the opening exchanges.
Sock, the American 27th seed, clung on to take Raonic to a tie-break in the first set, but the Canadian’s class soon told, and he made light work of it before forcing Sock into a wayward forehand and sealing a break halfway into the second set.
Raonic wears a mouthguard on court because the stress and intensity makes him grind his teeth but he need not have bothered. The 23-yearold Sock also has a powerful serve but he rarely threatened to stem Raonic’s flow.
He was forced to wait for the breakthrough in the third set, with Sock saving a series of break points, but it always a matter of when, not if, Raonic would take control. He finally broke Sock’s resistance in a third-set tiebreak. Raonic will now face 11th seed David Goffin in the next round on the way to a potential semi-final showdown with Roger Federer. That would provide a welcome chance for revenge for Raonic, who was defeated by Federer in straight sets at the same stage two years ago. Meanwhile, Andy Murray must wait to discover who he will face in the fourth round as Nick Kyrgios and Feliciano López were locked at a set apiece (6-3, 6-7) in a combustible encounter before bad light stopped play. Juan Martín del Potro was trailing Frenchman Lucas Pouille when play ended last night. The Argentine went into the tie on the back of a sensational win over Stan Wawrinka, but Pouille will lead 6-7, 7-6, 7-5 when they resume today.