Yahoo Sports 
Milos Raonic routinely into the third round at Wimbledon, faces Jack Sock next
WIMBLEDON – The rainout Wednesday meant that when Milos Raonic’s match against Andreas Seppi of Italy was rescheduled to Thursday, he was moved from No. 1 Court to No. 3 Court.
Not a huge deal, or an ego thing to be downgraded a couple of levels of show court. But the No. 3 Court has a particular significance for the 25-year-old Canadian – even five years down the road.
So when the rain began to fall just as he and Seppi were to begin the first-set tiebreaker, Raonic had things to say to umpire Mohamed El Jennati before they resumed.
“You're in a tiebreak and you don't want to play it with any sort of hesitation. That court, in 2011, is the court I slipped on (in the second round against Gilles Muller of Luxembourg) – actually on the other side from where I was at the start of the tiebreak. I slipped on that court after a long rain delay after the court was a little bit humid, let's say. A couple hours later, I was in surgery.
"It just wasn't something I wanted to play with on my mind,” Raonic said after a relatively routine 7-6(5) 6-4 6-2 victory over Seppi that moves him into a third-round clash with No. 27 seed Jack Sock.
“Thankfully the umpire was understanding. I wasn't decisive in saying, ‘No, I'm not going to play,’ but I openly discussed it with him. He was understanding about it," he added. "We resumed with maybe not ideal conditions, because it was still a little bit moist when we resumed, but at least less thought of it on my mind."
Raonic got the early mini-break after the brief stoppage, but gave it back midway through the tiebreak before he went ahead for good with a cheeky slice backhand down the line. It barely cleared the net, it was short in the court, and Seppi couldn’t handle it.
Once the first set was in the books, it got significantly easier. And by the time he broke in the third set, it was fairly evident Seppi thought it was going to be too much of a mountain to climb to win in five.
“I knew somewhat what to expect. I thought he played quite well. He never let me get a rhythm, even though I was trying not to let him get a rhythm,” Raonic said. “He was hitting the ball pretty hard. The ball was staying pretty low. It was hard to really get some looks to be too aggressive with. I had to sort of always be looking to change the shots up and bring him out of his repertoire.”
So the Canadian is off to the third round with a dangerous opponent in Sock, against whom he is 7-1 but against whom those wins have not come routinely.
They met here in the second round the year Raonic reached the semi-finals, 2014. Raonic won in straight sets; Sock took the doubles title that year with Raonic’s countryman Vasek Pospisil. But the American has come a long way in singles since then.
“I have to serve well. We've played a lot of times. I've been able to find the solutions most of the time. I’ve got to take care of the serve. I’ve got to find my way forward, find a way to be the aggressor,” Raonic said. “I think it's the fact that I've always found a way to be the one dictating, controlling. It's always eventually paid off throughout the difficult matches for me.”
Raonic dismissed some of the reported buzz around the tournament that his relationship with John McEnroe was over almost before it began. No word on where, exactly, that “rumour” came from – perhaps because McEnroe wasn’t able to be at his match, and those rumbling about it didn’t see the American former star handing out advice during Raonic’s warm-up session this morning – but the Canadian shot it down in a hurry.
“It's inaccurate. He was there with me this morning. Obviously he's trying to be there as much as he can. It depends what kind of commentating schedule he gets that day,” Raonic said. “For the first round, it worked out. Today it didn't because I believe he was calling the first two matches on Centre Court.”
Raonic did confirm the comments from another former Wimbledon champion, Richard Krajicek, that he had been approached by Raonic to be a consultant for the grass-court season before the Canadian turned to McEnroe. The Canadian said early in the week that he had been studying video of some of the great serve-volleyers of the past including Pete Sampras, Pat Rafter and … Krajicek, who won here in 1996.
“I approached Richard at the end of last year as well. Since we did spend some time together in December, I thought that he could possibly help me. I guess the terms just didn't work out,” Raonic said. “We spoke about it as a team, then we reached out to John. John was ready to take that on. It's been positive.”
