Canadian veteran Milos Raonic advanced to the men’s quarter-finals at the Libema Open grass-court tennis tournament with a 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 win over Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut on Thursday.
The 33-year-old from Thornhill, Ont., had his cannon serve firing with 25 aces as he won 78 per cent of total service points. He did not defend the only break point he faced, but broke Bautista Agut three times on four chances.
Raonic improved to 6-0 in his career against Bautista Agut, though it was the first meeting between the veterans since 2017.
Raonic will play top seed Alex de Minaur of Australia on Friday at the ATP 250 event in s’Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. De Minaur is 2-0 against Raonic, including the first round of this year’s Australian Open when Raonic retired with an injury.
Raonic joins Bianca Andreescu in the Libema quarter-finals. The 23-year-old Andreescu, from Mississauga, Ont., faces former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka of Japan on Friday.
In other grass court results Thursday, Italy’s Matteo Berrettini defeated wild card Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., 6-4, 6-4, in the second round of the Boss Open in Stuttgart, Germany.
Berrettini broke Shapovalov twice on three chances while defending the only break he faced.
In Nottingham, England, a second-round women’s doubles match between top-seeded Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand and British tandem Alicia Barnet and Freya Christie was suspended because of weather.
Wimbledon prize money is increasing to a record amount
Wimbledon’s total prize money fund will rise to a record £50-million (about $87.7-million), with the singles champions each earning £2.7-million ($4.74-million), All England Club officials announced Thursday at the annual spring briefing.
The total amount is £5.3-million (about $9.3-million) more than last year, an increase of 11.9 per cent – and exactly twice the £25-million handed out to competitors at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament 10 years ago.
Ticket demand “has never been greater” than it was this year, said Deborah Jevans, the new chair of the All England Club.
The winners’ cheques for 2024 represent a jump of £350,000 each (nearly $614,000), a 14.9-per-cent jump.
Players who lose in the first round of singles will get £60,000 (about $105,000) each, up from £55,000 ($96,500) in 2023.
The prizes for the qualifying event will go up 14.9 per cent to £4.8-million (about $8.42-million).
Nadal to skip Wimbledon to prepare for Olympics
Rafael Nadal is going to skip Wimbledon, as expected, and instead prepare for the Paris Olympics by entering a clay-court tournament in Bastad, Sweden, he hasn’t been to in 19 years.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion, who turned 38 on June 3, said Thursday he wants to just remain on clay, rather than switching over to grass for the All England Club, then needing to go back to clay for the Summer Games.
“We believe that the best for my body is not to change surface,” Nadal said in a statement.
He has been dealing with hip and abdominal injuries over the past 1 1/2 years, including having surgery in 2023, and has been forced to play a limited schedule. Nadal was defeated in the first round of the French Open late last month by eventual runner-up Alexander Zverev – marking the first time in Nadal’s career he has lost consecutive matches on clay.
The Summer Games will hold the tennis competition at Roland Garros starting on July 27. That is the site of the French Open, where Nadal has won a record 14 titles.
Nadal will play doubles – with Carlos Alcaraz – and singles at the OIympics, Spanish men’s tennis captain David Ferrer said Wednesday. Alcaraz, 21, won the French Open on Sunday for his third Grand Slam title. He is the youngest man to own major championships on all three surfaces.