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THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 3, 2019

Milos Raonic

Wimbledon, London, England

M. RAONIC/R. Haase

7-6, 7-5, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. A fancy word to describe your performance today might be "measured."
MILOS RAONIC: Yeah, towards the end of that third especially, but there are certain things I wish I did better throughout certain parts of the match where I felt I could have been a bit more efficient when the opportunities to be aggressive presented themselves.

But, you know, a match, especially three-out-of-five goes up and down a lot, and thankfully I was able to get the best of all three of those in important moments.

Q. How much have you seen Reilly play? Obviously not against one another. What are your thoughts of beating Stan to face you?
MILOS RAONIC: Yeah, I think it's a great win for him. He dealt with a lot of pressure moments really well today. I haven't had a chance to watch the later aspects of the match. I watched the earlier stages of it.

He was giving himself the opportunity to be the one that was getting ahead in the points first. And Stan had, from what I heard, quite a few chances, didn't make the most of them. But it wasn't really so much on Stan. It was more Reilly was coming up with the right things in the right moments.

You know, hopefully I can put him in those situations and keep challenging him to do so.

Q. How would you describe him as a player, from what you have seen?
MILOS RAONIC: He plays aggressive. He goes for it. He tries to keep you off-balance. He's hard to get a rhythm on, because not only does he finish things off pretty quickly with his serve and getting ahead that way, but he's constantly swinging for his other shots. He doesn't really hold back. It's hard to sort of work yourself into the points.

So I think it's going to be about who can be the one that can control the center of the court and find a way to effectively be the aggressor first in the points.

Q. You were pretty vulnerable 6-5 down in the first, bad game. He tries a dropshot. Afterwards he sort of criticized himself for doing that. Do you think that's a part of his character and not the thing you would have done in a position like that? You would have just gone for it and not tried a tricky shot?
MILOS RAONIC: Well, I definitely wouldn't try a tricky shot, but he has better hands than I do in that aspect.

But, yeah, I think I stick more to specific patterns. I believe in things I work on and I think a lot of the time in that situation a dropshot could have been a successful thing for him.

But I knew that he has good hands. He likes to do that a few times. I didn't think he would do it in an important moment. But luckily I got up there. I was lucky because I was in a bad position to hit it that deep, but I'm glad it sort of went my way.

Q. What was the injury you received treatment for?
MILOS RAONIC: I just sort of pulled a bit my calf in that moment. Just got it treated. Didn't really cause too much trouble after.

Q. Is it lingering?
MILOS RAONIC: We will see how I wake up tomorrow, but I don't think it should be.

Q. How was the back?
MILOS RAONIC: Back was much better.

Q. It seemed during the match you didn't seem quite as supple serving and stuff, but as the match went on you seemed to loosen up?
MILOS RAONIC: I warmed up. I had tape on it, just like in my first round. But I felt it was a little bit too restrictive.

Once I took that off, it took me a moment just to feel comfortable not having that on, considering I practiced with it for many days now.

I'm glad that I was able to play through three sets, serving aggressive on first and second serves and not having any issues come up.

Q. What is the tape actually supposed to do?
MILOS RAONIC: It just limits that last range where sort of the shoulder comes forward a bit more on the follow-through of the serve where I was a little bit vulnerable last week, which I feel much better in.

But we just wanted to try to keep that on as much as possible to -- it wasn't really to protect anything, but just as a "just in case" sort of.

Q. What are your expectations of that new mixed doubles team, Serena Williams and Andy Murray?
MILOS RAONIC: Yeah, I think it's one of those things that's either going to turn out incredibly well and be very exciting or it might sort of come up short.

I think people are expecting a lot from the two of them, especially with Andy already winning Queen's, playing well in the doubles matches. Serena, I believe, has won all the doubles with her sister and has won I believe most -- maybe she's just missing one in the mixed in Australia. But she's won here before in mixed. So I think there is a lot expected of them.

I think anything short of them winning, people might feel like they came up short.

Q. What do you expect in terms of the effect on fans and the popularity of that duo over the next few days?
MILOS RAONIC: I think it's going to be crowd-pleasing. It's going to be exciting. I think the media, tennis fans, everybody is going to enjoy. Especially at these early stages, till the top guys start to face off against one another in the singles, it's going to get a lot of attention. Then we'll see how long they pull it through.

It could be a very exciting story.

Q. You're a New Balance guy and Toronto guy. What are your thoughts Kawhi Leonard?
MILOS RAONIC: I hope he stays. You know, he did a lot of great things for the team, for everybody that's a basketball fan in Toronto and in Canada, and especially as a Raptors fan. I really hope he stays.

And, yeah, there is a lot of guys that have already committed. There is not really much left to pick up for either team, so I hope he's leaving LA with scraps after and coming back to Toronto (smiling).

Q. Do you have any special insights?
MILOS RAONIC: I don't think anybody has any special insights when it comes to him (smiling).

Q. If he does leave, what effect do you think that will have on the Raptors?
MILOS RAONIC: You go from being the favorite in the East, especially next year without Durant being in Brooklyn to, you know, a team that's I believe a solid playoff team.

But I think they sort of drop to third or fourth in line, maybe even fifth behind, I think, Philly would be the clear favorites if he's not there anymore.

Celtics will be interesting to see how they recoup losing two of their main stars. I don't know if the Nets will put it together that quickly without Durant.

Milwaukee is there. I think they brought back most of their core. I think that puts them fourth or fifth in line.

Q. You had a little baseball presence in your... How did that come about? Was it fun for you?
MILOS RAONIC: Yeah, it's nice. It's the second time he's come out to a match. Came out to US Open a couple years ago when I played that fourth round against Gasquet on Court 17. I believe that was 2014.

He's a top-level professional and I respect him a lot. I was grateful that he was in town and he wanted to come and see some tennis. We connected, and I'm thankful he came.

Q. Going to keep him coming as a good-luck charm?
MILOS RAONIC: He's heading home tomorrow. I don't know if I'm going to offer to change his ticket for him (smiling). Those baseball contracts are a little bit bigger than tennis contracts.

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