Advertisement

Milos Raonic falls just short against Gilles Simon in Queen's Club quarter-finals

Milos Raonic falls just short against Gilles Simon in Queen's Club quarter-finals

Earlier in the week, Milos Raonic said that given his lack of match play and ongoing issues as he recovers from foot surgery, the biggest thing that kept him in his first two matches back was mental toughness.

On Friday against Gilles Simon of France in the quarter-finals of the Aegon Championships, he let that composure slip just long enough to turn what seemed destined as a straight-set victory into a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory for Simon.

It took Simon five match points to finally put it away, although Raonic never had a break point in the final game and put far too many balls into the net, to which he reacted with a scream or a rueful grin.

Raonic's slice worked a lot better than his two-hander, but it might have been the forehand errors that hurt him the most. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
Raonic's slice worked a lot better than his two-hander, but it might have been the forehand errors that hurt him the most. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

The 24-year-old Canadian had 22 aces in all, but 10 of them came in the first set. As the match went on, the perenially-underrated Simon began to read his serve much better, and was able to improvise some returns and passing shots from awkward positions.

But if there was a turning point, it came at 2-3 in the second set. Raonic got a bit out of sorts after chair umpire Carlos Bernardes overruled a Simon shot on the baseline. The call was late; Raonic had already missed his next shot by the time the linesperson made the call. The overrule was correct, but Bernardes didn't allow the point to be replayed, awarding Simon the point. On the next point, Raonic incorrectly challenged on his first serve, then impatiently tried to hit a two-handed backhand, when throughout the match he had gone primarily to the slice, with good results. He missed it badly.

The next thing you know, Simon broke serve, and went on a run where he won 12-of-15 points.

Raonic lost a tough three-setter to Gilles Simon Friday in London, but seemed to take it well (TennisTV).
Raonic lost a tough three-setter to Gilles Simon Friday in London, but seemed to take it well (TennisTV).

In the third, with Simon serving at 3-4, you got the sense that trying to break serve and holding his own to wrap up the match was Raonic's best option – that the longer it went, the better the Frenchman's chances were for the upset.

And that's how it played out.

Still, Raonic managed three matches on the grass (two in singles, one in doubles) and, more importantly, tested out his foot (operated on four weeks ago to neutralize a pinched nerve, called a Morton's neuroma, that had been bothering him for quite some time).

He has no plans to play the final grass-court warmup event in Nottingham next week, and instead will prepare for Wimbledon, where he reached the semi-finals a year ago, losing to Roger Federer.