Wimbledon men’s final: Milos Raonic v Andy Murray
Sunday July 10, 5pm (UAE time)
“I’m playing well, I’m fit and dammit if I’m not hungry.”
Those emphatic Milos Raonic words, uttered as he signed off from the Mubadala World Tennis Championships at the start of the year, keep coming back to mind.
He said he was hungry and he has definitely walked the talk this past fortnight at the All England Club, especially in that incredible win over David Goffin in the fourth round when, for the first time in his career, the Canadian battled his way back from two sets to love down.
Raonic’s two coaches, Carlos Moya and John McEnroe, both former world No 1s and grand slam winners, took him aside after that Goffin win and told him, “This can change your career at this point”.
And it probably has.
Armed with a newfound self-belief, Raonic, 25, took down Roger Federer in Friday's Wimbledon semi-final to become the first non-European to reach the final since American Andy Roddick in 2009, and next up is home favourite and 2013 champion Andy Murray.
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To dwell a bit more on his magnificent semi-final win, Raonic gave even further evidence of his hunger in the five-set thriller, most notably in that final game of the fourth set, which probably decided the fate of the match.
Federer, and almost everyone watching the semi-final, was already thinking about the tie-break as the Swiss served at 5-6. He raced to a 40-0 lead, prompting ESPN commentator Darren Cahill to say, “This was just what Federer was looking for: An easy service game.”
But, as we keep saying across the world of sports, “It ain’t over until the fat lady sings”.
Federer, serving superbly until then, inexplicably double-faulted twice to give Raonic what he later described as a “little opening” and he made the most of it with a sensational backhand pass down the line.
That shot virtually booked Raonic’s ticket to his first grand slam final. And now he gets an opportunity to avenge his loss to Murray in the final at Queen’s Club three weeks ago.
“I would like to be there on a Sunday [the fnal] at Wimbledon,” Raonic had said after that Queen’s loss. “That would mean something significant, if it is against Andy, I think it would be a great thing.”
The Queen’s, of course, is not the only time Raonic has lost to Murray this year. Struggling with a groin injury through the second half of a five-set match, he lost in the semis of the Australian Open. Murray then drubbed him 6-2, 6-0 in the quarterfinal of the Monte Carlo Masters as well and the Queen’s win gives the Scot a 6-3 head-to-head advantage going into the final.
Murray, in fact, has won five on the trot against Raonic, with his last defeat coming in the spring of 2014 at Indian Wells. Stats, then, clearly suggest Murray will be favourite to win his second Wimbledon crown, but the past will not decide the outcome of this match – hunger will.
Clearly Murray will be as hungry as Raonic if not more. The Scot has been to 10 grand slam finals prior to this and lost eight, including the finals of the first two majors of this year. So you do not have to be a super psychoanalyst to understand what Murray desires most.
Oddly, though, for the first time in 11 grand slam finals, he will be seeing someone other than Federer or Novak Djokovic across the net.
“Yeah, that’s different,” said Murray. “But you never know how anyone’s going to deal with the pressures of a slam final.”
Raonic, from his side, was shooting as straight as his serves. “Now I have an even bigger tool-set to face that challenge on Sunday than I did a few Sundays ago [at Queen’s Park],” he said. “I’m by no means done.”
So, while it would be tempting to talk about the “super coaches” in the two corners and “It’s John McEnroe vs Ivan Lendl once again” would make a grand headline, this final will be about the two men in the middle and their hunger.
You could dub it the Hunger Games, and rest assured, the final will be as entertaining as Suzanne Collins’ trilogy.
arizvi@thenational.ae
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