Raonic, Levine Continue Canada’s Winning Ways at Wimbledon

It’s been an incredible start to Wimbledon for Canada as four players are already through to the second round.  Al Dannity reflects on a wins for Milos Raonic and Jesse Levine, who joined Vasek Pospisil and Eugenie Bouchard in the second round.

Ain’t the Davis Cup something? A bunch of guys on the fringes of tour start looking up to a bona fide star on their national team and some magical things start happening. The inspiration of having Milos Raonic as their on-court leader is clearly rubbing off on Canada’s rising crop of Tennis stars. Tuesday morning saw Jesse Levine continue a remarkable streak for Canada in the singles competition.

Wins for Eugenie Bouchard, 5-7 7-6 6-4 over Galina Voskoboeva, and Vasek Pospisil, 6-3 6-3 7-6 over Marc Giquel, meant Canada went 2 and 0 on Monday. Levine had a tougher assignment but eventually came through in five sets. Having taken the opening two sets 6-4 6-2, it looked like Levine would make swift work of Guido Pella of Argentina. Pella fought back however to take the third 6-4 and the fourth 6-3. With Levine ahead 4-3 in the decider, Pella was forced to retire injured and the Nepean, Ont., player progressed. Not long after, Raonic joined him in the second round following an impressive 6-4,6-3,6-3 win over Carlos Berlocq. Raonic will now face 60 Igor Sijsling.

Levine, who initially played for the United States before switching his allegiance back to his homeland this year, faces a massive step up in competition for his next assignment. Former US Open champion and 8 seed at SW19 Juan Martin Del Potro. His challenge is arguably greater than the test awaiting Bouchard, whose reward for her first round win is a clash with Ana Ivanovic. Pospisil is also facing a tough assignment in the form of 20 seed Mikhail Youzhny. It would take a stunning upset for any of the trio to progress and, despite Levine and Pospisil showing significant progress this season, Bouchard is the best placed to challenge.

The Montreal native is just 19 years old but with youth comes confidence and she’s facing a player prone to wild swings in form. Ivanovic has the talent to tear Bouchard up but also the unpredictability to allow the +325 underdog into the contest. No matter how the match goes, it promises to be a useful learning experience for the Canadian.

If nothing else, having all these other Canadians in the second round might be enough to remind Raonic of the job he needs to do here. For all his promise and progress, Raonic has yet to make it past the second round at Wimbledon. This week would be a good time to fix that.