Raonic serves way to another victory
Canadian clocks near-record speed at Wimbledon
• It looked like Milos Raonic was going to have plenty of time to relax on Canada Day, but Tommy Haas ultimately forced him to work hard for a four-set victory that sends him on to the third round.
Eventually, the Canadian’s booming serves, including one of the fastest ever recorded here, were enough to carry the day.
“It does help,” Raonic said, modestly, of his weapon. “It makes my life a little easier.”
Raonic, the 24-year-old from Thornhill, only lost one point in the first three games on the way to a 6-0 first set win that lasted just 18 minutes. Haas, the 37-year-old German who on Monday became the oldest player to win a match at Wimbledon since Jimmy Connors (38) in 1991, managed to put up a bit more of a fight in the second set, but Raonic still won it 6-2 in 35 minutes.
Haas, though, dug in. In front of a very pro-Haas crowd at the large Court 1 — there was only one fan with Canadian flags to be seen — the German started getting more of his first serves in play, and winning more of those points.
With his improved service game, Haas managed to stretch the third set to a tiebreaker, even though he couldn’t manage to push Raonic to a break point until 6-5 in that set. Haas won the tiebreaker, although Raonic made few mistakes in it, and the story was much the same in the fourth set: both men holding serve through 12 games before a tiebreaker settled things. This time it was Raonic who jumped out to a quick lead, giving himself four match points. He won the second of
As long as the serve doesn’t come back, I’m happy
them with a beautiful passing forehand off a Haas serve.
Raonic will face Australian Nick Kyrgios in the third round, in another match that will almost certainly include a crowd that favours his opponent.
Raonic again had his howitzer of a serve flashing by Haas in a blink and causing line judges to jump out of the way before the ball boomed off the green canvas behind them. His 29 aces included a 145-mph rocket that was the third-fastest serve ever recorded at Wimbledon. (American Taylor Dent set the record at 148 mph in 2010.) Raonic clocked several above 140 mph, but said he didn’t much care about the speed gun. “As long as the serve doesn’t come back, I’m happy,” he said.
Late in the third set when Haas had finally managed a couple of break opportunities against him, Raonic responded with back-to-back aces. It is a great way to dig out of a hole.
“I mean, that serve is special, that’s for sure,” Haas said after the match. “It’s been a while since I faced a serve like that.”
After saying that Raonic should be considered a dark-horse contender to go very far in the draw, Haas came back to the same topic again.
“You know, that serve is — you know, I wish I had a serve like that just one time in a match just to see how that would feel,” he said, smiling.
Kyrgios is also a big server, with an average speed (115 mph) in his Wednesday victory that was the same as that of Raonic, although he topped out at 136 mph.
“For both of us, it’s going to be first-strike tennis,” Raonic said.