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SPORTSCENTRE Reporter

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LONDON – It's hard to imagine a better start to Wimbledon for Milos Raonic.

"It's all been very positive," the 28-year-old said after beating fellow big server Reilly Opelka in the third round. "I played well, I played efficiently, didn't waste energy, won all three of my matches in straight sets, played better and better, improved on a lot of things from match to match so gives me a lot to build off of."

After missing the clay-court season with a knee injury and being plagued by a back issue (inflamed joints) in the weeks leading into the season's third major, Raonic only spent six hours on court in the first three rounds of Wimbledon. He did require a medical timeout in his second round match against Robin Haase to address a minor calf issue, but the injury did not linger.

"Body's feeling good," Raonic said. "Little nags have come up, but we've managed to contain all those fires and, as I'm playing more and more, I'm starting to feel better and better, which is a very good sign for me."

 While Raonic rolled, the highest seeds in his quarter of the draw – No. 4 Kevin Anderson, No. 6 Alexander "Sascha" Zverev and No. 10 Karen Khachanov – all fell. On Monday Raonic will face No. 26 Guido Pella, who is making his first appearance at this stage of a major.

"It's going to be tough," Raonic said. "He's got good hands, he's crafty, he's quick. It's going to be about not getting into too many long rallies, not letting him get into too much of a rhythm, trying to sort of break that up and play my game, be the one imposing and dictating."

Pella upset Anderson on Friday and took down Marin Cilic at last year's Wimbledon. What's his secret against big servers at Wimbledon?

"The key is try to return their serves every time that you can," said Pella, who also has a win over John Isner on his resume. "So, I did a very good job with that and I think if I can manage to do that on Monday, the same thing, I'm going to have my chances, I don't know if to win, but to win a few sets so I will try to do my best. I will try and play aggressive like I did against Anderson and maybe I will have a chance."

If Raonic is able to get past Pella, he will face either No. 23 Roberto Bautista Agut or No. 28 Benoit Paire in the quarterfinals. He's 5-0 against Bautista Agut, including a win on grass at the Queen's Club in 2016. Raonic lost his only match against Paire, but that was way back in 2013.

"No one really talked about Raonic prior to the start of the tournament, because he's been injured a lot this season," said ESPN analyst Jason Goodall, "but, I tell you what, when you can serve as well as he can and when you got the experience to draw upon that he has here at the Championships and you get a pretty decent draw then that's a really nice combination so a lot of people are now talking about seeing him through to the final four ... he can do some serious damage."

 Raonic has had a solid season when he's been fit enough to play, including a run to the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, semifinals at Indian Wells and another semifinal in Stuttgart where he was forced to withdraw before a showdown with countryman Félix Auger-Aliassime, because of the back problem.

"There's been some good moments," Raonic said before Wimbledon began. "Obviously, I don't think I’ve competed at a tournament yet this season healthy so I’m still waiting for that, but I just got to keep pushing through and hope my time comes."

Maybe his time is now.

Raonic has been knocking on the door over the years at the All England Club with a run to the championship match in 2016 beating Roger Federer in the semifinals before losing to Andy Murray. Raonic also made the semifinals here in 2014 losing to Federer. He lost in the Wimbledon quarterfinals the last two years.

With Auger-Aliassime losing to Ugo Humbert on Friday, Raonic will remain the top-ranked Canadian on tour regardless of what happens in the second week of Wimbledon. This was the first grand slam where three Canadian men were seeded and Raonic takes great satisfaction in being a trailblazer.

"It’s incredible to see," he said. "Right now, we have a bunch of Canadians competing to be the best in the world and it’s a pretty amazing feeling, because I don’t think many people even considered that a possibility 10 years ago and now for it to be happening and happening on a consistent basis and through a variety of generations I think is very entertaining for Canadian fans. I think it's grown the sport in Canada significantly. I’m proud to be a part of it ... one of the first ones at the start of this decade and, you know, I think it’s only going to continue to get better and better. I think we’ll see a lot of new moments that we haven’t seen before and I think we’ll keep turning over new rocks."