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Wawrinka, making his first return to the site
of his 2016 triumph since undergoing knee surgery, showed he was
still shaking off the ring rust despite encouraging victories in
the first two rounds.
The first set went down to the wire with nothing to choose
between the two rivals, neither of whom were unduly troubled on
serve.
Raonic lost the first three points of the tiebreak before
recovering to level at 3-3 and showed great strength of
character to save two set points before going on to claim the
opener.
"It was tough," the Canadian said in an on-court interview. "I
was fortunate I got through that because I was falling behind in
that tiebreak."
Wawrinka, who had won four of his five previous matches against
Raonic, could not match his opponent's intensity in the final
two sets and paid the price for some poor shot selection.
The 33-year-old is one of the best all-court players on the
men's circuit and his one-handed backhand is matched only by
that of his compatriot Roger Federer in terms of elegance.
It let him down repeatedly on Friday, though, as Raonic, sensing
a weakness, targeted that side and duly prospered.
The Canadian serve-and-volley specialist made sure he stayed on
the front foot throughout, firing down 14 aces to Wawrinka's
four and coming to the net behind his booming serve 37 times
with a success rate of 73 percent.
"I've got to just keep getting sharper," added Raonic, who is
seeded 25th. "I've got to find a way to get ahead a little
earlier in the points and not get too defensive.
"If I can play on my terms I can compete against anybody."
Next up for the 27-year-old is a last-16 clash with American
John Isner, the 11th seed, who beat Serbian Dusan Lajovic
earlier in the day.
(Reporting by Simon Jennings, editing by Nick Mulvenney)
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