Andy Murray is finally the favorite in Wimbledon final with Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic eliminated

Roger Federer vs Marin Cilic Highlights 2016/07/06 QF | HD720p50 by ACE

WIMBLEDON, EnglandThe headline in the Times of London said exactly what many Brits are thinking: Finally its not Federer or Djokovic. Yes, at last Andy Murray, the homeboy, will play for the championship of a tennis Grand Slam and not be facing two of the men who the last few years have been the best in the sport, Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic.

In Sundays Wimbledon mens final, Murray the Scot the English papers too often refer to him just as a Brit plays Milos Raonic, 25, who not only is the first Canadian male to get this far but the first ever to make it to the final round in any of the four major tournaments.

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For the Murray, 29, it is his 11th Grand Slam final, the previous 10 against either Djokovic or Federer, and the third at Wimbledon where he lost to Federer in 2012 and beat Djokovic in 2013. Murray has been in the finals of all three Slams this year, losing to Djokovic in the Australian and the French. Hes comfortable.

Three weekends ago, Murray won Queens for a fifth time, one of the grass court preludes to Wimbledon, defeating Raonic in the final. But Murray said, Im aware Ill have to play a very good match if I want to win Wimbledon. I was down a set and a break at Queens. Hopefully Ill come out firing.

Raonic certainly will. The serve is his weapon. At 6-5, hes known as one of the fastest servers in the game, if not the fastest, recording speeds of more than 140 mph.

Ivan Lendl, the Czech who never won Wimbledon, is one of Murrays coaches, and John McEnroe, the American who won it three times, is one of Raonics. It gives actually a bit of extra confidence, said Murray, reuniting with Lendl, because I know last time we worked together, it was very successful. I trust in what he says.

What McEnroe did for Raonic was get him to be more emotional, which certainly McEnroe was when he played.

I think hes definitely put an emphasis on it, Raonic said. I try to calm myself down. He says. Theres no too calm for you. You tend to be too calm, try to get energy out of you, try to get it out of you on court and leave it all out there, try to get the most out of yourself.

That has worked so far. But will it for sixth-seeded Ranic against second-seeded Murray? Murray has all the shots, moves very and will have virtually all the 14,000 fans at Centre Court cheering for him.

That is, Murray said, a nice advantage.

Source: http://www.newsday.com/sports/tennis/andy-murray-is-finally-the-favorite-in-wimbledon-final-with-roger-federer-novak-djokovic-eliminated-1.12024558

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Milos Raonic thinks up a plan for Wimbledon revenge over Roger Federer

Roger Federer fourth round press conference

Everyone in the players area was cheering on Roger Federer when the king of Centre Court mounted his regal comeback from two sets down against Marin Cilic on Wednesday. Everyone, that is, apart from Milos Raonic. He refused to be swept away by the romance of Federers victory and it was not out of support for Cilic, even though he has a closer relationship with the Croat.

Instead Raonic watched the television in a transfixed state, studying the match, the trends, searching for any potential signs of weakness that he can exploit when he meets Federer in a repeat of their 2014 semi-final, which the Swiss won in three routine sets.

Related: Wimbledon 2016: Milos Raonic beats Sam Querrey to secure semi-final spot

I was just seeing where guys are going on the important moments, what patterns to pick up, so you can try to cover up some things in those moments, said the sixth seed. As the man with one of the biggest serves in the game, he presumably would have noted how Federer slowly took control of the contest.

Federer struggled to read Cilics serve at first, making 20 out of 36 returns in the first set and 11 out of 26 in the second. In the fifth set, however, his return stats were up to 72% and Federer went from losing the majority of the rallies between zero and four shots in the first two sets to dominating them in the final three.

Raonic, who hit his 114th ace of the tournament in his quarter-final win over Sam Querrey, loves to kill off a point quickly. Serve and volley is a tricky tactic to pull off against Federer, though. Raonic will need variety and durability, while the quality of his returns will be crucial. Federer has been broken three times in five matches.

Federer has beaten Raonic twice on grass, the last time at Wimbledon in 2014 in what was the Canadians first appearance in the last four. Two years have passed since I played him here in the semi-finals. Im happy that I have another shot at him, said the Canadian.

The 25-year-old has matured since surrendering to Federer two years ago and though he has lost nine of their 11 matches, he won their Brisbane final in January.

Raonic impressed in his defeat to Andy Murray in their Australian Open semi-final later that month. He rarely betrays any emotion on the court, either positive or negative.

Yet Raonic is a deep thinker whose willingness to analyse his game can sometimes be detrimental. His coach, Carlos Moy, has encouraged him to loosen up a little, along with helping him to hone his skills at the net. There was a glimpse of his calm when he recovered from two sets down against David Goffin in the fourth round.

The other high-profile member in Raonics team is John McEnroe, who was brought in at the start of the grass season. It has been an encouraging start, with Raonic close to beating Murray in their Queens final.

It escaped no ones attention that McEnroe commentated on Federers match against Cilic for ESPN. You read statistics quite a bit, Raonic said. Ill look through it a little bit. Carlos will look through it a lot. John called the entire match. Im sure hes going to have plenty of things to say.

Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&ct2=us&usg=AFQjCNHPg8qAzwniPyRwGcBpHZ67dT8xvw&clid=c3a7d30bb8a4878e06b80cf16b898331&cid=52779152106686&ei=PI1-V6D1DYzK3gG0q6zQBQ&url=https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jul/07/milos-raonic-roger-federer-wimbledon

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