Milos Raonic’s return at the Queen’s Club ended in heartbreak when he lost a three-set nail-biter to France’s Gilles Simon. Despite claiming the opening set, Raonic could not get a break in the later sets, losing 4-6, 6-3, 7-5. Raonic hit twenty-three aces in the match, and won seventy-three percent of his first serve points, which was actually his lowest percentage of the tournament. He also won an impressive sixty-six percent of his second serve points. However, he was unable to convert a break point after the first set. Simon defended his serve well and was perfect on break points which allowed him to take the match.

The key statistic in the match was Simon’s break point conversion rate. Simon was 100% on break points in the match, converting his only two break points, first at 3-2 in the second set and then at 5-5 in the third which gave him a chance to serve out the match. Raonic has traditionally been one of the best players on the ATP tour at saving break points, and to his credit, he only allowed two break point opportunities. But he was unable to save either one. Full credit to Simon, he was brilliant on break point and took advantage of his opportunities, probably knowing that he wouldn’t see a lot of them. Raonic had five break points of his own, but only converted one at 1-1 in the first set. He also failed to make many inroads on Simon’s serve, only winning twenty-seven percent of Simon’s first serve points and forty-eight percent of Simon’s second serve. Considering the fact that Simon’s serve is nowhere near as strong as Raonic’s their service numbers were almost identical (with the exception of aces). Raonic put pressure on Simon while trying to stay alive at 6-5, saving four match points, but it wouldn’t be enough. The win was Simon’s first against Raonic in four matches.

Overall, Raonic should be pretty happy with his performance at the Queen’s Club. That being said, losing to Simon would actually be a more frustrating loss than his first two opponents. Had he lost to Ward in round one, the rust would have been blamed. Had he lost to Gasquet in the second round, Gasquet would have been given all the credit as he is a former top-ten player and Wimbledon semifinalist, as well as the fact that he was coming off his 400th match win so he had momentum. Losing to Simon is tough because Raonic had never lost to him before and was playing on a surface where he should be able to beat Simon. This match should have been easy for Raonic. That being said, Simon played great and gave Raonic very few opportunities and Raonic by no means played badly. Simon was just clutch when he needed to be. It’s a tough loss for Raonic, but at the same time he can say that he was outplayed at the crucial moments and can learn from the loss. It will be disappointing as he had a great opportunity to reach the final, but now he has more time to prepare from Wimbledon. And no matter how he feels about losing to Simon, it was definitely a better performance, both in the match and tournament as a whole, than last year when he lost in the opening round of Halle to Peter Gojowczyk.

Raonic can now turn his focus to the lawns of the All-England Club. He has a big task ahead of him with a semi-final performance to defend. But he should be going into the tournament feeling very good about his chances. He played extremely well at the Queen’s Club considering that he hadn’t played in over a month. He gritted out two good wins because losing a squeaker. Clearly he is in decent form and no pain. He will also be entering Wimbledon having played more grass court tennis than last year. He lost in straight sets in the first round of Halle last year before reaching the Wimbledon semifinals. This time he has three three-set matches so he’ll be more match ready. And of course, Raonic has lots of positive memories to draw on at Wimbledon. While losing at Queen’s was certainly disappointing, there are a lot of positives to be taken into the year’s third slam. Milos should be ready to roll when the lawns of Wimbledon are opened for business in a week and a half.