Canada's Greatest Wimbledon Ever

Eugenie Bouchard is in the Women’s Final; Milos Raonic is in the Men’s Semi-Final. It seems that this is Canada’s greatest Wimbledon ever.
Neither was quite to be expected. Bouchard has already made waves this year in Women’s tennis: she appeared in the Australian Open and Roland Garros Semi-Finals and won her first WTA title ever in Germany two months ago. However, surely the likes of Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova et. al. would’ve been more hotly tipped to be where “Genie” is now? That’s the thing with women’s tennis, as Fats Waller would say: “One never knows, do one?” Because they play over three sets instead of five upsets are much more likely to happen. In men’s tennis it is not at all unusual for the underdog to win a set or two but in general the stronger player should be able to win the other three. However, in the women’s game once the underdog wins her two sets she’s won the game. Therefore Bouchard may require just a small rub of the green in the shorter form of the game against Petra Kvitova.
Twenty-three year old Milos Raonic was already known about himself. He has five ATP titles to his name and made the Quarter-Finals of the French Open this year. Now he is in his first Grand Slam Semi-Final against the greatest tennis player of them all, Roger Federer. He has never beaten the Swiss, but since they last played the Canadian has broken into the Top 10. But why is a Top 10 player not expected to be in the Semi-Finals? If you want to write off Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal before a tournament you’re a brave man indeed.
Can either win his or her match? As I said earlier, women’s tennis is something of a lottery; hence why even though the Williams sisters have been dominant in South West London, there has been a wild range of other winners and finalists in the last ten years or so. Bouchard is only twenty years old and is immensely talented. She has a very bright future indeed ahead of her. However, women’s tennis is even more for the young than men’s tennis: look at reigning champion Marion Bartoli’s retirement in her twenties. Bouchard has a huge chance to win her first Grand Slam title at such a young age and there’s no better way to set the tone for a career than winning Wimbledon in one’s first youth.
As for Raonic, it could be something of a struggle for him certainly to win the tournament and even to progress to the final. He comes up against Roger Federer, the greatest tennis player ever who, despite being very much in the twilight of his career, will still be more than determined to claim the record number of Wimbledon men’s singles titles for his own and extend his Grand Slam record to eighteen. Federer has mentioned in the press that he knows what he is up against and is confident in dealing with it and Raonic will have to play the game of his life against Federer to beat him for the first time.
Certainly, if Raonic serves at the top of his game it will become very hard for Federer to break him: Milos can serve at 130mph barely breaking sweat. If the Canadian keeps landing his first serves in he will be able to bog down Roger and even if he can’t break the Swiss himself, he will be able to tire him out with long sets and high-pressure tiebreaks.
Stranger things have happened in tennis than either of these two winning their respective games, but there is no question that neither of these two will be able simply to turn up and win. This is possibly Canada’s best chance of winning its first Grand Slam singles title ever; both must show they are up to the task if they want to bring the glory home.