By Amanda Barlow
- Andy Murray [2] def. Milos Raonic [6] 6-4 7-6(3) 7-6(2)
- Murray wins his second Wimbledon title and his third Slam title
WIMBLEDON, UK – Andy Murray won a second Wimbledon title and his third Grand Slam in another straight sets victory, this time over Milos Raonic.
If there was any doubt at all that the British public had finally taken Andy Murray to their hearts, the roar as the pair walked out should have set their minds at rest. There was an excited chatter despite the ominous gloomy clouds above.
In a battle that would be all about the returns, Murray looked to have his eye in well, getting on the end of shots that should by rights have had a missile warhead on them.
Yet it would be Raonic’s serve that would entertain the first break point, rescued by a couple of unrelenting body shots.
There was no mistaking a trademark Murray passing shot that left the Canadian stuck like a rock at the net, on the way to another break-point opportunity, and it looked as though Raonic would get burnt again.
Pulling the ball long, Murray had one more chance to make good on a break, and as Raonic moved to the net once more he came up short, dumping the ball in the net again to give Murray the break.
The Brit flirted with giving the collective on Centre Court a coronary as he wnt from 40/15 to deuce, before consolidating.
Raonic put off the inevitable with a hold, forcing Murray to serve it out. In a delicate put-away very reminiscent of Serena Williams’ championship winner, Murray sealed the first set.
An early break point for Murray elicited a shot of rage from the Canadian – maybe nerves had played more of a factor than he would have liked to admit, but he just held on to start the second set.
Murray’s serve continued to fire in a competitive second set – although it had dipped quite considerably since the first set, it was enough – and the quality of his passing shot winners continue to leave Raonic the man-mountain immobile.
With the errors racking up and Raonic seemingly relying more on his serve, which found the net more and more, Murray edged towards another break point. Again drawing parallels with Williams, Raonic just could not get a look in on the Murray serve, even when his quality dipped.
Raonic must have felt everything was going against him, smashing an extravagant moon-ball only to have Murray return it and then dump his forehand in the net.
Not even a 147mph serve could stop Murray from getting on the end of it and a resulting backhand return winner for break point, but a couple more clutch serves kept Raonic in contention, eventually forcing a tie-break.
With a 4/5 record in their tie-breaks, for Raonic to miss a complete sitter of a shot at the net on the first ball did note bode well for the Canadian, as Murray really ran away with the breaker with a comfortable cushion.
Two thirds of the way there might be a mighty mountain for the former champion, but it was going to be a very long way back for the Canadian. If Murray had felt fatigued in the French Open final after two extremely long opening matches, then Raonic was perhaps feeling the effects of his longer matches to get here.
Raonic was again reverting to the big serves and perhaps the inevitable dip in Murray’s resources brought about his first break points on Murray’s serve. He rescued one with another big serve and another with a rally that had Murray egging the crowd on.
With Raonic again trying to move forward, time and time again his pick-ups and volley attempts were more at home in the net.
With the finish line in sight Murray’s patient play kept drawing the errors from the Canadian, who sent down a body serve of his own for a 6-5 lead. Raonic pushed to another tiebreak and his last possible chance to stay in contention.
Much like the first tie-break, Murray struck quickly and decisively. He quickly built up a pretty insurmountable 5-1 lead and in serving out the Championship point, Murray kept the hearts racing with two lets in a row and a serve in the net. A second chance on his serve drew a netted swipe from Raonic to give Murray his second Wimbledon title, and moves him one away from Stan Wawrinka with three slams to his name.
We have seen Murray win a nation’s hearts by crying on the court after a bruising loss to Roger Federer in his first final in 2012, only to come back a mere matter of weeks and win Olympic Gold.
We’ve seen him stunned as he won first the US Open and then the coveted, gilted Wimbledon trophy – by his own admission he could not enjoy that as much.
We expected him to win buckets of trophies after his daughter Sophia was born (because that’s what happened to Novak Djokovic, right?) – and he did at least beat the (then) unbeatable Djokovic in a dank Rome.
But this was his moment, having lost the last three Slams since winning Wimbledon, he had his moment and was determined to enjoy it this time,.
He told BBC Sport: “I’ve had some great moments here, but also some tough losses. The win feels extra special because of the tough losses.”
There were British successes across the board at Wimbledon
Gordon Reid beat Stefan Olsson in the inaugural Gentlemen’s Wheelchair Singles Final 6-1 6-4
Yui Kamiji and Jordanne Whiley won the Women’s Wheelchair Doubles beating Jiske Griffioen / Aniek van Koot 6-2 6-2
And finally Heather Watson partering Henri Kontinen beat Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Robert Farah 7-6(5) 6-4 to claim the Mixed Doubles title
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