RAONIC DISAPPOINTED

Federer wins easily at Wimbledon

To have a shot at beating Roger Federer and playing in the Wimbledon men’s singles final, Milos Raonic had to serve lights out.

He knew it. Everyone watching him knew it. Even Federer probably knew it. And he was capable of it. He couldn’t do it. So the 32-year-old from Switzerland, the seven-time champion here, advances to a meeting with No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic in the final after what was basically a routine 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 victory over the 23-year-old Canadian. And Raonic is left to figure out why he couldn’t summon up his best tennis in the biggest match of his career.

“I’m quite disappointed with the level I was able to put out. I know I can do much better,” Raonic said. “Obviously I wasn’t expecting by any means to play my best, but I was expecting much better from myself.”

Meanwhile, Vasek Pospisil of Vancouver, who battled back issues for the first half of the season and lost in the first round of the men’s singles, is through to the doubles final with American Jack Sock. And veteran Daniel Nestor or Toronto and mixed doubles partner Kristina Mladenovic of Serbia, the defending Wimbledon mixed doubles champions, are in the semifinals.

There were a lot of firsts for Raonic in this match. First major semifinal. First time against Roger Federer in a Grand Slam. First time on Centre Court in the tournament, and it’s worth noting that unlike the other majors, you can’t practice on the court before the match to get used to the size and scope of it.

As Raonic pointed out, Federer has played “triple-digit matches” on that court.

But the biggest problem, in a nutshell, is that a player who spends most of his time resolutely not looking ahead, focusing on the task at hand, and taking his progress step by step, took a little peek around the corner at the pot of gold, despite his best intentions and rational thoughts.

Raonic saw the Wimbledon final. He wanted the final. Maybe, he dared to think, he might even win Wimbledon. That’s an entirely human reaction and tennis, in the end, is played by humans with the same dreams and emotions as anyone else, even if they’re better at compartmentalizing them than the average citizen.

“I don’t think it was the physical things around me that made it difficult for me today. I think it was more knowing what kind of opportunity lies ahead beyond this round and beyond that, and what I really wanted to go for and chase,” he said. “Maybe I just put that on myself too much.”

Meanwhile, his opponent has been there so many times, and re-

I’m quite disappointed with the level I was able to put out. I know I can do much better ... I was expecting much better from myself.

MILOS RAONIC

spected his opponent enough, that he knew better than to look ahead even though this obviously was a huge opportunity to win his eighth Wimbledon, and his 18th career Grand Slam.

Only in retrospect can you evaluate how the first game of a match turns out to be a telling one. But after Federer won the coin toss and chose to let Raonic serve, his first 136 mph delivery was called long, a little late, but accurately. It wasn’t that close but after some internal deliberation, Raonic challenged it, unsuccessfully. He watched a Federer forehand passing shot clip the line. He double-faulted, and he took a deep Federer return and floated it long.

Federer said he chose the side instead of the serve, so he could start with the wind at his back. But Raonic wasn’t buying it. “I thought he was doing that more because he knew it was my first time in that situation,” Raonic said. “Nobody really does that. It’s more to make a person think.”

Regardless, it worked. “I didn’t see (the service break) coming necessarily, but I grabbed it and then ran with it,” Federer said.

In the chicken-and-egg debate over his game, you would think that as the Raonic serve goes, so goes the rest. But after this one, he said that that in fact it was the other way around. “I think if everything else was flowing a little bit better, it makes everything a lot easier. But I just felt like I was not where I wanted to be and I was putting a little bit more on my serve than needed to be, and I wasn’t going as freely with it,” Raonic said. He had 17 aces, well below his average of nearly 30 aces per match through his first five rounds.