We have had the women’s final at Wimbledon (Serena Williams beat Angelique Kerber) which means we now have the men’s final, a final that on the face of it looks lot more interesting and unpredictable – Andy Murray v Milos Raonic.
Straight away this strikes me as a game that certainly won’t be done and dusted in a particularly quick fashion. Murray is an exceptional player and was excellent in the semi-final against Tomas Berdych. Additionally, he has more experience than Raonic and will have the backing of the crowd on Centre Court, where, of course, he has won Wimbledon before as well as the 2012 Olympics.
Raonic can become too worked up, although, I also feel that this can sometimes be used to his advantage. No wonder he brought John McEnroe into his team, he was certainly a fighter, breaking rackets virtually every 10 minutes!
As previously mentioned, this final is not easy to predict. I think that Raonic will put pressure on Murray and go in towards the net. Couple this with his very good serve and Murray can definitely face a few problems here. It’s also worth remembering that these two also faced each other at the Australian open, however, Raonic got injured which was very frustrating as they were on equal terms. The Canadian held his serve and it wouldn’t be too much to say that he looked better than Murray at times, but sadly his injury prevented him from going any further. On grass though, things could be different. The surface suits Raonic with his phenomenal serve and the way he presses – Murray is unlikely to enjoy full dominance here.
Despite all this, the Scot, along with his experience at this level, will have the backing of the crowd which will no doubt add to his game. Once again, I think this game is difficult to call but one thing that seems obvious, at least to me, is that the pair should fight it out in more than 40.5 games.