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By Chris Oddo | Saturday July 9, 2016

Wimbledon, England--Tomorrow’s Wimbledon final between Andy Murray and Milos Raonic will mark the tenth time that Raonic and Murray go head-to-head and the first time that they meet in a Grand Slam final. We take a look at the matchup, what the players are saying about it, and go inside the numbers here.

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The Tactics

Raonic has served and volleyed 152 times at Wimbledon, and won 115 of those points. It’s one of the many ways he’ll look to pressure Murray, and another is mixing locations on the Scot, who is the second-best returner in tennis and arguably the best returner against big servers.

Murray will look to get into rallies and move Raonic around, forcing him into longer points and longer rallies, and putting pressure on the big Canadian.

Murray has won 32 of 88 return games this fortnight, which is a higher percentage than any player that played at least two matches. It will be a lot more difficult for Murray to keep this percentage up against Raonic, but he has created at least ten break point opportunities in each of his last five matches, three of which were against world-class servers Nick Kyrgios, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Tomas Berdych.

Home Court Advantage

Wimbledon’s Centre Court is like Murray’s back yard. He’s played all six of his matches on it this year, and he’s won two of the biggest titles of his career on it. He’ll have the crowd on his side, perhaps more than ever, and that will make things tough for Raonic, who has only played on it once this year, and twice in his career.

Battle of the legend Coaches

John McEnroe has helped Milos Raonic shore up his net game and develop his on-court demeanor. Ivan Lendl is the lucky charm that has taken Murray to his only two Grand Slam titles. Both coaches enjoyed hating each other during their careers, and there’s no doubt that the coaches have nearly as much invested as the players in this matchup.

What they’re Saying

Murray on working with Lendl again and how it has brought him success in the past: “I don't think it's a coincidence. I obviously had the best years of my career with him… I obviously wanted to work with Ivan again to try to help me win these events. That's the goal.”

Murray, on whether it helped to face Raonic in the Queen’s final: “There's things that all players will do differently depending on whether they're playing on clay than grass. So it helps to have played a match against him on the grass. You know, see some of the things he's doing on this surface a little bit differently.’

Raonic, on the difference between himself now and two years ago when he was shellacked by Federer in the semis:” Two years ago I bottled up all the difficulties I had on court and never got it out. Today I found a way to keep plugging away, keep myself in the match, then sort of turn it around. I was quite more vocal and a lot more positive on court.”

Raonic, on what he can’t afford to do on Sunday: “I think the biggest challenge for me, which I felt was the thing I want to happen the least, or repeat itself the least from Queen's, is I got sucked into his game. I didn't play on my terms. That's going to be the most important thing for me.”

2-1 -- Murray’s record in Grand Slam finals with Lendl at the helm. He’s gone 0-7 in the other major finals without Lendl.

3 -- Murray is bidding to avoid becoming the fourth man in Open Era history to avoid losing three consecutive major finals. He’s already one of the first three. Murray lost four in a row from 2008 to 2012, Roddick lost four in a row from 2004 to 2009, and Lendl lost four in a row from 1981 to 1983.

5 -- The length of Raonic’s current losing streak against Murray. The Canadian owns a lifetime head-to-head record of 3-6 against Murray.

4 -- Raonic is bidding to become just the fourth man in the Open Era to win his first grass-court title at Wimbledon. The first three players to do it were: Michael Stich (1991), Andre Agassi (1992), Novak Djokovic (2011).

50 -- Percentage of serves that have not been returned against Raonic in his first six matches. Murray’s percentage of unreturned first serves is 31. Murray has won 85 of his 93 service games (91.3 percent), while Raonic has won 116 of 121 service games (95.8 percent).


 

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