MELBOURNE, Australia — Milos Raonic beat French Open champion Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 4-6, 6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open.
The hard-serving Canadian came into the fourth-rounder winless in four matches against Wawrinka, the 2014 Australian Open champion, and all their results had been close and involving tiebreakers.
Raonic cruised to the first two sets, then watched as Wawrinka attempted to come back from two sets down for the seventh time in his career.
But Raonic broke Wawrinka in the sixth game of the deciding set — when Wawrinka's attempted passing shot went long — giving the Canadian a 4-2 lead.
Raonic held in the next game, clinching it with an ace, and Wawrinka saved a match point in his next service game. Raonic clinched the match in 3 hour, 44 minutes with a winner to the open court at love in the final game.