Milos Raonic became the latest man to be foiled by the Grand Slam stranglehold of the ‘Big Four’ when he ran up against the Wimbledon brick wall of Andy Murray and, like others before him, was left scrambling to find hope in the wreckage. The 25-year-old insisted he will “leave no stone unturned” in his bid to return to a major final and become the first Canadian Grand Slam title winner.
 However, recent history makes brutal reading for Raonic as well as the likes of other hopefuls such as Kei Nishikori, Dominic Thiem, Nick Kyrgios and the badly fading Grigor Dimitrov
 Since Roger Federer won the first of his 17 Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon in 2003, 45 of the following 52 majors have been claimed by the sport’s pre-eminent forces — Murray, Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.
 Three of those to break the pattern are long retired — Andy Roddick (US Open 2003), Gaston Gaudio (Roland Garros 2004) and Marat Safin (Australian Open 2005).
 Juan Martin del Potro, the 2009 US Open winner, has undergone four wrist injuries which pushed him to the brink of retirement while Marin Cilic has come nowhere near to adding to his 2014 win in New York. Stan Wawrinka, the 2014 Australian Open and 2015 French Open winner, is still a serious contender at world number five but he is 31.
 “I’m going to work on everything. I’m not going to leave any stone unturned,” said Raonic after his 6-4, 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/2) defeat on Sunday. “I’m going to try to get myself back in this position, try to be better in this position. I’m going to try to get fitter, stronger. I’m going to try to improve my return game, improve my serve. Improve my efficiency coming forward.”
 The last man outside of Murray, Federer, Djokovic and Nadal to triumph at the All England Club was Lleyton Hewitt back in 2002.
Raonic had gone into his maiden final at the majors having fired 137 aces in the tournament. However, on Sunday, Murray restricted him to just eight. Even firing the fastest serve of the tournament of 147mph in the ninth game of the second set brought no reward. It came back to him with interest and the Scot won the point.
Having previously reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon in 2014 and again at this year’s Australian Open, where Raonic pushed Murray to five sets, a first major final appearance represents a significant step for the 6’-5” powerhouse. His semi-final win over seven-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer, from two sets to one down, was a milestone success, while in the last 16 he had battled back from two sets down for the first time in his career to beat Belgian David Goffin.
 Few doubt Raonic’s maturity and work ethic, although there are one or two areas of his game that still need to improve — namely his return of serve — as was shown against Murray. When fellow Canadian Eugenie Bouchard lost her Wimbledon final to Petra Kvitova two years ago it signalled a downward spiral for the player predicted to be the next big thing.
 Raonic’s next target will be the Rogers Cup back home in Canada, but he would not say if John McEnroe, who he hired for the grass-court season, would still be part of his entourage. “We haven’t spoken about anything, but I’m sure we’re going to have that discussion over the next 24 hours,” Raonic said. Three-time Wimbledon champion McEnroe was commentating on the final for ESPN on Sunday.
 With or without McEnroe, Raonic, who also has former world number one Carlos Moya in his camp, is confident he can do for Canadian tennis what Murray has done for Britain. “I believe I definitely have that ability within myself,” he said. “There’s not a shadow of a doubt from myself. The question is, am I going to make the most of it when those opportunities arise?”