LONDON -- Milos Raonic played the best match of his life to end 34-year-old Roger Federer's hopes of winning Wimbledon one more time and adding an 18th Grand Slam title to his collection.
Federer started slowly but seemed to take control of the match after he won the second set. But Raonic finished the fourth set with a flurry of winners and thumping serves to force a fifth set.
Federer, the No. 3 seed, faded in the deciding set as Raonic continued to power his way to history. The final score Friday: 6-3, 6-7 (3), 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 in 3 hours, 25 minutes.
Raonic becomes the first Canadian man to reach a Grand Slam final, which will be played Sunday at 9 a.m. ET on ESPN and WatchESPN.
"It will have a big impact, but it will have a bigger one if I win," he said.
Here are five takeaways from the match:
1. Success finally matches big game: Raonic is still just 25. He's a 6-foot-5 power server with lots of additional tools. They carried him to three Grand Slam semifinals. But in the past, he's had trouble capitalizing on his opportunities at the most critical moments. Raonic also has struggled to make his opponents feel his significant presence. That's one reason he recently hired John McEnroe as his adviser and coach.
It looked as though Raonic was heading down the same path after he double-faulted to hand Federer the critical mini-break in the second-set tiebreaker. He also wasted some good chances to break Federer in the fourth set, with the No. 3 seed leading two sets to one. But he stepped up late in the fourth set to break Federer from 40-love to force a fifth set.
"He found gear he probably didn't even know he had," McEnroe told British viewers.
2. A champion breaks down: It was like a lightning strike or a two-car crash on a quiet street on a Sunday morning. Federer gained control of the match and seemed to be aiming for a four-set win when he went ahead 40-love on serve at 5-6. He then hit a pair of double faults. Inspired, Raonic wrested away the game. It was the most un-Federer-like collapse we've seen and a sure sign of time and age taking its toll on a champion's stamina and focus.
3. It's not all about the serve: Raonic's serve is truly a fearsome thing. But it has been the overall gradual improvement in his ground game that won him this match. Raonic hit 75 winners to Federer's 49. He won 42 percent of the baseline points, compared to just 45 percent by Federer. Raonic won 16 of his 19 serve-and-volley approaches, significantly better than Federer's 11-of-16. It was a well-crafted, all-around solid performance.
4. Patience pays: Sure, Federer lost, but he almost managed to snatch the match from Raonic's hand despite spotting him a set. Federer looked slow, sleepy and error-prone from the start. He gave up an unforgivable break in just his second service game on a double fault. In the sixth game, Federer was arbitrarily denied an ace while serving at 0-30 because Hawkeye malfunctioned and couldn't verify his challenge. He still won the game.
Raonic rode that early break to victory in the set, but Federer kept his cool. He remained patient, even after Raonic recovered from 0-40 to hold for 5-all in the second set. Patience paid off when Federer won the tiebreaker to hit the restart button on the match.
5. The McEnroe effect: While McEnroe is still working on making Raonic a more assertive, imposing presence on the court, one place that his advice already has visibly paid off is in Raonic's attacking game. Raonic is backing up that atomic serve with net play with greater frequency and verve. It won him his quarterfinal clash with Sam Querrey and it enabled him to keep Federer from dominating baseline rallies all day.
At times, Raonic even takes the ball like vintage McEnroe, lightly holding the racket still, well out in front of his body.