Pella Stuns Raonic To Reach First Slam QF
Pella Stuns Raonic To Reach First Slam QF
Argentina’s Guido Pella has made a name for himself on the ATP Tour with his clay-court success, but at this rate, Pella will soon be well-known for his grass-court results as well.
The 26th seed upset another former Wimbledon finalist on Monday, beating 2016 runner-up Milos Raonic 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(3), 8-6 to make his first Grand Slam quarter-final. The 29-year-old Pella knocked out last year’s finalist and fourth seed Kevin Anderson in the third round, and the left-hander found a way to break Raonic’s serve to get past the fourth round at SW19.
The 15th-seeded Raonic didn’t face a break point in the first two sets and served for the match at 5-3 in the fourth set. But Pella broke him for the second time in the match and pulled away in the tie-break. Raonic erased three match points while serving in the fifth set – 4-5, Ad Out; 5-6, 15/40 – before Pella broke through when the Canadian sliced a backhand volley into the net.
Before this fortnight, Pella had never reached the Round of 16 at a Grand Slam. He won his first ATP Tour title at the Rio Open presented by Claro in February and is tied with Rafael Nadal for the Tour lead in clay-court wins (21).
But Pella made the third round of Wimbledon last year after upsetting 2016 finalist Marin Cilic in the second round, when he also came back from two sets to zero down.
Pella will next meet Roberto Bautista Agut, the No. 23 seed, who competed with great service consistency to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the first time — equalling his best Grand Slam championship performance (also 2019 Australian Open). The Spaniard beat 28th seed Benoit Paire of France 6-3, 7-5, 6-2 in one hour and 52 minutes. Bautista Agut won the first four games of the third set.
Paire later admitted, “I have a tear in my abdominal, so I tried to serve like 60-70 per cent, but it’s tough. When you play against Bautista Agut, it’s not easy.”
Bautista Agut leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head series with Pella 2-0, but they’ve never met on grass.