Wimbledon 2016 - Gentlemans Semifinals

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Raonic v Federer - McEnroe feels his protege is ready to get to a Slam Final. On ESPN, he stated that emphatically.  Federer looks hungry, but Cilic feels Federer was missing shots that he did not miss in his heyday.

Berdych v Murray - Murray should find this a bit easier than his QF v Tsonga. Drop shots and good defense should also help. Baseline play may not get him much leverage with Berdych.

summerblues wrote:

Nore Staat wrote:Just to add Raonic last played Murray in a Grand Slam in January 2016 at the Australian Open in the semifinal.  Murray won in five sets but Raonic won the first and third sets so at one point was leading two sets to one.
Murray won it: 4-6 7-5 6-7(4) 6-4 6-2.

In fact, Raonic was up two sets to one, and on serve in the fourth when he got injured and only lost the match after that.

Thanks

I saw the highlights of the Raonic vs Federer match and some of the rallies were exceptional - Raonic being surprising good, in terms of movement, anticipation and deftness.  I heard from somewhere that Raonic potency in serving is less due to absolute power / speed and more to do with positioning and angles.

lydian wrote:I don't see it as doom & gloom socal - the guy has had a herculean career - just more assessing the reality of the situation with him being 35ish and not many have won slams at this age period.



Socal, Federer hasn't won a slam in 16 majors now...why would you place 4-1 odds of him winning another one when he's now at an even older age? I think that's highly optimistic.



...

I think 4 to one 5 to 1 is about fair odds. Lets say he plays 10 more slams, I am not saying he is 4 to 1 to the next slam or any particular one, just saying that if we assume he competes in 8 or 10 slams from now that from this date he may still have a 20 percent chance to win one of the next 8 to 10 slams. At most his chance of winning any one slam would be if you did the math and I am not a math major would be something like 30 to 1 or 40 to 1. But amalgamating all his chances he might have a one in four or five chance to win one of the next 8 slams lets say. That is assuming of course that he play another two years lets say. And if he starts to get injured that might not happen.

summerblues wrote:

Nore Staat wrote:Just to add Raonic last played Murray in a Grand Slam in January 2016 at the Australian Open in the semifinal.  Murray won in five sets but Raonic won the first and third sets so at one point was leading two sets to one.
Murray won it: 4-6 7-5 6-7(4) 6-4 6-2.

In fact, Raonic was up two sets to one, and on serve in the fourth when he got injured and only lost the match after that.

If I remember correctly up until that point each player had one break of serve in the match. Raonic in the first game of the match and Murray at 6-5 to win the second set. So all that was between them at the time Raonic picked up the injury was the 3rd set tie-break. As we have seen this week going into the fourth set leading 2-1 is no guarantee of a win. Then there was Queens when Murray won from a set and a break down with no injury complications. You could question if the reason Raonic got injured was because Murray was frequently making him play shots from positions his body was not accustomed to and the stress of this eventually made his body fail.

That all said I like Raonic and feel he has a lot more to his game than the big serve.He also seems to have the right attitude in trying to improve himself.. His progress has been held back by injury or I think he would have won more by now. I see Sunday's final as being quite close and although I want Murray to win would not grudge Milos if he did.. I think that the main positive for Murray from Federer losing is that he will now have the majority of the crowd supporting him. Had it been Federer given the experience of 2012 it would have been much more split and even more towards Federer.

This is the classic tennis battle of good versus evil. On the one hand, we have a player blessed with grace and touch, who produces 2-3 moments of genius per match. On the other, we have the robotic Raonic, who last did something interesting on a tennis court when he cheated his way to victory over Del Potro in 2013. It's basically Rocky versus Drago. 

If this was a film, there would be only one winner. A Raonic win takes tennis back to the dark ages of the 90s, so tennis more than ever needs Murray to turn up in a slam final. However, unfortunately this is real life. If Raonic serves well he's very tough to beat on such quick courts. I suspect Murray will go a set down, losing a break early, and it's a 50-50 match from there. Just got to hope the coin flip lands the right way.

I struggle to relate to your perspective here BS.

Milos Raonic first arrived on the scene as a big server and was recognised initially as offering little else. But now I'm seeing a guy who has improved in so many areas over the last couple of years to show a good deal of versatility and genuine tennis talent.

Sure, he will never wield a racquet with the uber-special skills of a Nadal, Federer or Borg. Such genius is extremely rare, as we all know. Raonic will never set the world of tennis alight. But having watched him in Friday's SF v Fed, I never found myself thinking that I was watching a robot, and for me there was no lack of ability on show. I'm really not sure why he should be so bad for the game.

Here's the thing : if Raonic is as limited as many folk say he is, then he will be stopped by more skilful players. And if not, then he deserves whatever prizes & rewards come his way.

I do expect Andy to be too good for him tomorrow. But equally, I don't see how a Raonic victory would be some sort of disaster for the immediate future of tennis.

Born Slippy wrote:This is the classic tennis battle of good versus evil. On the one hand, we have a player blessed with grace and touch, who produces 2-3 moments of genius per match. On the other, we have the robotic Raonic, who last did something interesting on a tennis court when he cheated his way to victory over Del Potro in 2013. It's basically Rocky versus Drago. 

If this was a film, there would be only one winner. A Raonic win takes tennis back to the dark ages of the 90s, so tennis more than ever needs Murray to turn up in a slam final. However, unfortunately this is real life. If Raonic serves well he's very tough to beat on such quick courts. I suspect Murray will go a set down, losing a break early, and it's a 50-50 match from there. Just got to hope the coin flip lands the right way.

Little harsh on Milos, I think he is generally a good guy and a better tennis player than people give him credit for. But I commend any tennis post with a Rocky 4 analogy. I think Nick Kyrgios is Clubber Lange. That would be cool if after the pre-match photo Milos looks at Murray and says, "I must break you".

A thought on Federer, if he fails to win the US Open, then it's 1 slam in 7 years.

Henman Bill wrote:A thought on Federer, if he fails to win the US Open, then it's 1 slam in 7 years.

Poor man; we should feel sorry for him.

socal1976 wrote:

Born Slippy wrote:This is the classic tennis battle of good versus evil. On the one hand, we have a player blessed with grace and touch, who produces 2-3 moments of genius per match. On the other, we have the robotic Raonic, who last did something interesting on a tennis court when he cheated his way to victory over Del Potro in 2013. It's basically Rocky versus Drago. 

If this was a film, there would be only one winner. A Raonic win takes tennis back to the dark ages of the 90s, so tennis more than ever needs Murray to turn up in a slam final. However, unfortunately this is real life. If Raonic serves well he's very tough to beat on such quick courts. I suspect Murray will go a set down, losing a break early, and it's a 50-50 match from there. Just got to hope the coin flip lands the right way.

Little harsh on Milos, I think he is generally a good guy and a better tennis player than people give him credit for. But I commend any tennis post with a Rocky 4 analogy. I think Nick Kyrgios is Clubber Lange. That would be cool if after the pre-match photo Milos looks at Murray and says, "I must break you".

I second that socal. The details don't matter because there's a Rocky analogy in there. Therefore I sat well done to BS for a sublime post. If I could, i would saturate my every day with Rocky analogies.

I can imagine Raonic in the high tech gym for the training montage. And Andy and Ivan running in the snow, with Andy well bearded. And Andy lifting logs in a wooden hut and stuff. Would never have worked with Mauresmo.

Danny_1982 wrote:

socal1976 wrote:

Born Slippy wrote:This is the classic tennis battle of good versus evil. On the one hand, we have a player blessed with grace and touch, who produces 2-3 moments of genius per match. On the other, we have the robotic Raonic, who last did something interesting on a tennis court when he cheated his way to victory over Del Potro in 2013. It's basically Rocky versus Drago. 

If this was a film, there would be only one winner. A Raonic win takes tennis back to the dark ages of the 90s, so tennis more than ever needs Murray to turn up in a slam final. However, unfortunately this is real life. If Raonic serves well he's very tough to beat on such quick courts. I suspect Murray will go a set down, losing a break early, and it's a 50-50 match from there. Just got to hope the coin flip lands the right way.

Little harsh on Milos, I think he is generally a good guy and a better tennis player than people give him credit for. But I commend any tennis post with a Rocky 4 analogy. I think Nick Kyrgios is Clubber Lange. That would be cool if after the pre-match photo Milos looks at Murray and says, "I must break you".

I second that socal. The details don't matter because there's a Rocky analogy in there. Therefore I sat well done to BS for a sublime post. If I could, i would saturate my every day with Rocky analogies.

I can imagine Raonic in the high tech gym for the training montage. And Andy and Ivan running in the snow, with Andy well bearded. And Andy lifting logs in a wooden hut and stuff. Would never have worked with Mauresmo.

Yeah lol Danny, really funny stuff Murray does like boxing, I hope andy's speech is better than the Rocky 4 victory speech at the end. I'd kill to see Andy cast in that Rocky 4 montage to "hearts on fire" lifting horse carriages with Judy and Kim in a barn over his head because he is too old school for weights, or pulling rocks on a sled like and Alaskan husky.