Records - Raonic, new king of service and aces!
Milos Raonic is no longer the excellent player he once was. Formerly world number 3, he is currently ranked 186th in the world after seeing his career crippled by numerous injuries. At 33, he made his umpteenth return to competition last week at Bois-le-Duc. Considered one of the best servers in the history of our sport, he is trying to take advantage of a surface that suits him perfectly: grass.
After a good tournament in Holland, where he reached the quarter-finals only to be beaten by eventual winner De Minaur (7-5, 6-2), the Canadian lined up this week for the Queen's tournament. Up against a good Cameron Norrie, the former Wimbledon finalist (2016) was prodigious on serve.
With 47 aces in the match, he set a new record, becoming the player to have served the most aces in a two-set match on the ATP Tour (excluding qualifiers). Until now, Karlovic held this record. In 2015, the Croatian served 45 aces against Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals of the Halle tournament (victory 7-5, 6-7, 6-3).
Despite having two match points to spare, Raonic finally got the better of Norrie, ranked 39th in the world (6-7, 6-3, 7-6). In the Round of 16, he will meet Taylor Fritz, easy winner of Taro Daniel (6-3, 6-3).
Asked about his performance, the 1m96 (6'5") player was delighted, especially in view of the final result: "This little record is something special, something significant. I'm glad there's a win behind it, because maybe I'd feel different or a bit more bitter if I had to get so many free points and lose the game.
Raonic, Milos
Norrie, Cameron
De Minaur, Alex
Berdych, Tomas
Karlovic, Ivo
's-Hertogenbosch
In the old days before they had these super high tech rackets and strings they do today, it was more difficult to return first serves accurately and with any pace on a consistent basis, which allowed a serve and volley game to be a good strategy. Today's rackets allow players to essentially block the serve and still have control and enough pace that the server can't consistently serve and volley, as it's too high risk.
Just look at the big servers we have today. Zverev and Tsitsipas on a good day, Hurkacz, Sheldon, Raonic back ... as soon as they run into a player with an excellent ROS the rest of their game is exposed.
Tennis has evolved in part because of technology and in part because the sponsors want fans entertained to get more sponsors and ad revenue.