Agencies
Melbourne, January 26
Milos Raonic became the first Canadian man to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals in 47 years after a thrilling five-set win over Feliciano Lopez.
The eighth seed thundered down 30 aces as he made the last eight with a 6-4 4-6 6-3 6-7 (7-9) 6-3 win over 12th-seeded Lopez just over three hours of action on Hisense Arena.Victory helped the big-serving Raonic become the first Canadian man since Michael Belkin in 1968 to win through to the last eight.
He also equalled countryman Robert Powell’s feat of playing in three Grand Slam quarter-finals set back at the 1908, 1910 and 1912 Wimbledons.
“It’s great to be doing what I’m doing and that it is making a difference,” Raonic said.
“It is, I guess, part of some history, if you look really deep. But at the end of the day, at the same time, I’m always pushing myself for what I want to achieve.”
The 24-year-old, who reached the semi-finals at last year’s Wimbledon, squandered two match points when he was serving for victory in the fourth set.
Lopez took it to a fifth set, but Raonic regained his composure broke the left-handed Spaniard in the eighth game and then blasted three straight aces on the way to serving it out in the following game.
“It’s great to be here in the second week, there was some great tennis played today and I just think that is only going to get better,” Raonic added.
Raonic hit an extraordinary 81 winners and first served at 75 per cent, winning 79 per cent. His monster serve was only broken once by Lopez.
Next up will be a quarter-final against Novak Djokovic after the world No 1 and four-time champion dispatched Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller 6-4 7-5 7-5 to reach his eighth consecutive quarter-final.
Djokovic was outstanding on service, winning a high 82 percent of first serves and fighting off four break points.
The Serb top seed hit 47 winners and only 16 unforced errors in a masterly performance against the left-handed Muller.
Djokovic said the lanky, power-serving Raonic would be a tough challenge in the quarter-finals.
“I played Milos in the finals of Bercy last time. I know what to expect. We practice a lot. We live in the same place. We’re good friends,” he said.
“He’s very confident. He’s been playing some great tennis in last 15 months. He deserves to be where he is now, top 10, coming closer to top 5 of the world. Tough one. Definitely a tough one.”
