Four Things That Helped Murray Win the Wimbledon Final

While dominating the baseline, the Briton defused the Raonic serve to clinch his second Wimbledon title on Sunday.

World number two Andy Murray produced a masterful performance to beat Canada’s Milos Raonic in the Wimbledon men’s singles final on Sunday, winning 6-4 7-6(3) 7-6(2).

The Briton clinched his second Wimbledon title and third Grand Slam crown when he took down the misfiring Raonic.

Appearing in his 11th final at the majors, but his first against an opponent other than Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, the Scot put on a Centre Court masterclass. Here are the four main keys to his victory in a nutshell.

Defusing the Raonic Serve

Raonic slammed down a serve at 147mph on Sunday, the fastest in this year’s tournament, but his most destructive weapon never intimidated Murray. While Raonic dropped serve just once, he won only 67 percent of points on his first serve, compared to his average of 83 percent en route to the final. Murray only failed to return 26 percent of Raonic’s serves, meaning the Canadian had to work far harder than usual to hold serve.

Murray’s Reliable Serve

Murray’s first serve percentage was running at 70 percent for most of the match, dipping slightly to 67 percent by the end. Significantly, the Scot won 87 percent of points on his first serve and 54 percent on the second serve – the one area of perceived weakness in his game. Raonic was never able to apply any real pressure to the Murray serve, earning only two break points midway through the third set.

Murray’s Baseline Dominance

The pre-match thinking was that Raonic’s best hope was to keep the points short by being aggressive. But Murray actually won more of the rallies of four shots or less than Raonic.

Too often it was Raonic who was made to do the running, as the statistics show. Murray covered 2,367 metres in the final, compared to the 2,430 metres Raonic ran. Murray gave nothing away either, making only 12 unforced errors to Raonic’s 29.

Raonic Net Game Still a Work In Progress

While Raonic has definitely improved his forecourt game, there is still room for improvement if he is to really worry the likes of Murray and world number one Novak Djokovic. Of the 74 net points he played on Sunday, he won 46. Not a bad return, but not the kind of lethal volleying that could have swung the match. It let him down in the seventh game when he netted a forehand volley on break point –handing Murray the momentum.

(With inputs from Reuters.)