It will be a rematch of last year’s semifinals when Roger Federer gets another shot at Milos Raonic during the second week of Wimbledon on Wednesday, this time in the quarters.
Federer leads the head-to-head series 9-3, but Raonic prevailed 6-3, 6-7(3), 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 at the All-England Club 12 months ago. Thus the Canadian takes a two-match winning streak against Federer into this one, as he also got the job done 6-4, 6-4 in last season’s Brisbane final.
This, however, is obviously a different Federer than the one who was on display in 2016. The 35-year-old Swiss is armed with a clean bill of health and boasts a 28-2 record in 2017 that includes an 18th Grand Slam title at the Australian Open. He has not dropped a set this fortnight while ousting Alexandr Dolgopolov, Dusan Lajovic, Mischa Zverev, and Grigor Dimitrov.
“Roger’s been the best player I think this year, hands down, when he’s been on court,” Raonic commented. “But it’s not about six months or whatnot; it comes down to Wednesday–one day. So I just [have] to try to find a way to try to be better on that day.”
The world No. 7 was second best much of the way on Monday against Alexander Zverev, but he managed to turn things around en route to a 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 victory. That was preceded by more routine defeats of Jan-Lennard Struff, Mikhail Youzhny, and Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Raonic is hoping to make a return trip to the Wimbledon final, but he has not been the same player this season as he was when he surged to No. 3 in the world in 2016. The 26-year-old had been a disappointing 8-6 in his last 14 matches prior to arriving in London and he came in at just 16th in the race to the World Tour Finals.
Last summer it was Federer who was dealing with a knee injury and Raonic who was playing the best tennis of his career. To an extent, the roles are now reversed. Raonic has struggled with physical problems in 2017, while Federer–aside from skipping the entire clay-court swing–has been the tour’s best player.
Wednesday’s result should reflect that current state of affairs.
Pick: Federer in 4
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