Milos Raonic is flirting with disaster

Photo: Oli Scarff Agence France-Presse
Milos Raonic managed to save two balls of the inning when the tiebreaker of the second set, forcing Youzhny to commit two errors on the forehand.

After an early game difficult, the Canadian Milos Raonic reached the third round of the International of Wimbledon on Thursday.

Sixth seeded player, Raonic was eliminated Russian Mikhail Youzhny in four innings of 3-6, 7-6 (7), 6-4, 7-5, after 2: 40 of action.

The Canadian 26-year-old came close to disaster when he found himself facing two balls of the inning when the tiebreaker of the second set. He managed to save them by forcing Youzhny to commit two errors on the forehand.

This return seemed to revive Raonic, who recorded 17 aces in the last two innings, including ten in the fourth set only. It has also put an end to the duel with his 27th ace of the match. Along the way, he has committed 7 double faults, and has registered 58 hits, including 32 over the last two sets.

Finalist in the face to Andy Murray last year, Raonic will play against the Spanish Albert Ramos-Viñolas, 25th-seeded, which had to come from behind to eliminate Andrey Rublev, a Russian 19-year-old, 7-5, 6-7 (6), 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The Serbian Novak Djokovic (2nd), has also entered the third round with a victory of 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 against the Czech Adam Pavlasek, while Switzerland’s Roger Federer (3rd) eliminated the Serbian Dusan Lajovic, 7-6 (0), 6-3, 6-2, in the 90 minutes.

On Tuesday, Djokovic and Federer had spent only forty minutes each on the centre court when their opponent respective, the Slovak Martin Klizan, and Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov, had both abdicated due to injury early in the second set.

“This is perfect. This is exactly what I want, said Djokovic. I don’t want to have games of five rounds. “

Big Surprise

The table of the women’s singles was also the scene of a big surprise when the Czech Karolina Pliskova, the third head of series, has suffered elimination at the hands of Magdaléna Rybáriková. The Slovakian won 3-6, 7-5, 6-2.

Finalist in the International of the United States in 2016, Pliskova had approached the tournament with a chance to rise to the forefront of the world ranking.

“My expectations were a little higher, said Pliskova. But it is like that in tennis. Sometimes you play well and you don’t win. This was my case today. “

Rybáriková, who is in her tenth visit to the All England Club, has never passed the third round at the 35 other entries to the Grand Slam tournaments. Holding the 87th rank in the classification of the WTA tour, Rybáriková has reached the third round at Wimbledon in 2015, and two times at Flushing Meadows in 2008 and 2009.

Last year, she had lost since his first outing at Wimbledon and later underwent operations to a wrist and a knee that have held out to pasture until February.

Earlier in the day, the Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, the seventh head of series, was the result of her compatriot Ekaterina Makarova 6-0, 7-5 to reach the third round. The Polish Agnieszka Radwa?ska (9th), the Spanish Garbine Muguruza (14th), the American Coco Vandeweghe (24th), the Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko and the Slovenian Polona Hercog have imitated, while American Alison Water surprised the French Kristina Mladenovic (12).