LONDON | It was as if he had never been away for so long from this grass on which he had experienced the greatest moment of his career, in July 2016, when he reached the final. Even though he hadn’t played at Wimbledon for three years, even though he once thought his career was over, Canadian Milos Raonic won his first round match on Wednesday.
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The 32-year-old won 6-7(5), 6-4, 7-6(5) and 6-1 over Austria’s Dennis Novak, a qualifying finisher and ranked 159th in the world, in his second tournament only after being sidelined for two years with foot and Achilles tendon injuries.
He would have liked to enjoy it more
Raonic hadn’t been overwhelmed with emotion when he set foot at All England for the first time since 2019 last week. Renowned for his Cartesian side, the Canadian had raised that the players no longer entered through the same door, which had therefore removed a bit of “romance” on his big comeback.
But this first match for moons in the most prestigious of tennis venues, it was “fun”, admitted the Ontarian on Wednesday. “My only regret is not having taken advantage of it more, he pointed out to the journalists who came to meet him. You are playing, you are in competition mode and suddenly it is 5-1 and you are serving for the match.
They were trying to predict his aces
Speaking of serving, the powerful player had lost none of this art that made him famous, under the amazed gaze of some spectators who had carved out a place for themselves in the small stands of the very anonymous court 16.
In the stands, there were a few of them trying to predict the next ace of the Canadian giant, who is in London thanks to his protected ranking, he who has only played two games (a victory and a defeat at Bois-le- Duc, three weeks ago) since the summer of 2021.
The latter finally offered them 28, he who also won a phenomenal total of 88% of the points disputed on his first ball. As before, in short.
It won’t change anything…
Raonic said so on Sunday in his first meeting with the media. If the body holds, he will play at Wimbledon, at the National Bank Open in Toronto and then at the US Open. And afterwards, he will have to have “a great conversation with himself”, he had underlined.
This victory against Novak, in which he considers “to have done very good things”, despite two rain stops that he no longer knew how to manage, does not change anything as a result of things, he confirmed on Wednesday.
“No,” he said with a smirk. I only won one game. There is no reason to look any further.”
“I’m just happy to have the chance to get back on the pitch. [jeudi, contre l’Américain Tommy Paul, 16e favori]. I hope to enjoy it more this time around.”
▶ Denis Shapovalov also won his first-round match on Wednesday, while Canadian qualifier Carol Zhao was shown the way out (results here). Due to the rain that has been falling on Wimbledon for two days, Bianca Andreescu will finally make her appearance on Thursday.