Live by serve, die by the serve. Unseeded Canuck Milos Raonic rode his signature shot into the fourth round, but when it didn't serve its purpose there, David Ferrer took full advantage.
You wouldn't have guessed a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 final score after watching Raonic slug his way to an opening-set win. Like many of you, I was seeing the 20-year-old's power for the first time, and it more than lived up to the hype. His first serve is huge, but his second offering may be even bigger, relatively speaking. There's not much of a dip in speed, which isn't true for most players. Raonic closed out the first set with a smattering of unreturnable shots, leaving Ferrer motionless.
The Spaniard clawed his way back into the match by gradually picking up Raonic's sonic strikes. Ferrer scampers the baseline with speed and returns serve the same way, making sure to get a racquet on the ball at all costs. Raonic served (only) 15 aces in the match, and about half of them came in the first set. The believe-it-or-not stat of the match: Ferrer won 78% of his first-serve points; Raonic just 65%.
Raonic's play after the serve had a lot to do with that; he struck almost seven times the number of unforced errors as Ferrer, 68 to 10. Ferrer's consistency was simply too much for him to handle. But Ferrer did more than just keep balls in play—his cross-court backhand was as much of a weapon as Raonic's serve. The shot countered many of Raonic's net rushes and slowly, but surely, swung the match in his favor.
—Ed McGrogan