Wimbledon preview and odds: Milos Raonic vs Roger Federer

Published on: 08/07/2016

Wimbledon preview and odds: Milos Raonic vs Roger Federer

July 08, 2016 - Wimbledon, Semi-finals

Only Andy Murray has beaten Milos Raonic on grass this year but can the Canadian find a way past Roger Federer to reach his second-straight final on the green stuff?

Raonic eyeing first Grand Slam final

At the age of 25, Milos Raonic has yet to feature in a Grand Slam final but he will be aiming to quash that statistic on Friday by beating Roger Federer and booking a Wimbledon final match up with either Andy Murray or Tomas Berdych.

The Canadian has won nine out of 10 matches on grass this year, with his only defeat coming against Murray in the final at Queens. His decision to draft two former World No. 1 players into his coaching set-up (Carlos Moya and John McEnroe) seems to have paid off and he now looks set to fulfil the potential he showed in his early years.

Of course, Raonic faces a formidable task on Friday as his squares up to the man that beat him in his one and only Wimbledon semi-final appearance two years ago. However, while Raonic has improved since then, it could be argued that Federer has dropped a level due to a combination of age, injuries and lack of recent match practice. Having said that, we are talking about one of the greatest player of all time, and even when he is below his best, Federer is still better than most.

Much like Andy Murray, the Swiss legend had to dig deep in his quarter-final match against a determined Marin Cilic. He came from two sets down for the 10th time in his career and saved three match points before eventually disposing of the Croatian. At 34-years-of-age, time may be against Federer but he still has that lethal combination of calmness and ruthlessness that has become the hallmark of his illustrious career.

A win for Federer would move home above Jimmy Connors to the top of the all-time Wimbledon singles victories charts with a total of 85 wins.

Betting predictions

Federer came out on top when these two met at the same stage two years ago but this should be a much closer match. Raonic has been serving like a demon in this tournament and will need to keep that up and use every shot in his locker if he is to get the upper hand on Friday.

This should be another epic match but Federer can deal with big servers as well as anyone and can cope with the best Raonic has to offer.

You can back Federer to win 3-1 at 10/3 with Bet365.

By Neil Morris

Published on: 08/07/2016

Any odds displayed within this preview were correct at the time of publishing (08/07/2016 08:23:22) but are subject to change.