By Mike McIntyre
Hello Canada and welcome back to the world of professional tennis.
Twenty year old Milos Raonic who resides in Thornhill, Ontario, won his first ever ATP World Tour title at the SAP Open in San Jose on Sunday against the ninth ranked player in the world, Fernando Verdasco. Fittingly, he won the event in a hockey arena that normally houses the NHL’s San Jose Sharks.
“It’s nice to know a hockey arena isn’t new to me,” Raonic said after the win. “I’ve been in a few of these. This feels like home.”
A total unknown up until a month ago in all parts of the world except perhaps certain tennis circles in Canada and in Spain where he trained during the off-season, Raonic has now shot up the rankings from 150th in the world to a top-60 position he should assume when the new rankings are released this week.
Armed with a huge serve, a strong sense of timing at the net and the ability to surprise many with his deft ground-strokes, Raonic is the biggest young talent to emerge on the tour since Rafael Nadal in 2003. Nadal won the ATP’s newcomer of the year award that year as he rose from 203rd in the world to 48th by the year’s end. While Nadal was a couple of years younger at the time, I’m hard-pressed to remember any other player who has so quickly captivated the tennis community.
With his 7-6(6), 7-6(5) victory over Verdasco, Raonic has literally served notice that he is for real. He becomes the first male Canadian singles player to win a tournament on tour since Greg Rusedski sixteen years ago.
That comparison might make Canadian tennis fans a tad nervous as Rusedski jumped-ship in 1995 to the United Kingdom. While himself born in Canada, Rusedski’s mother was born overseas. For his part, Raonic was born in Montenegro and moved to Canada at the age of three with his parents.
Similar to Rusedski, Raonic is becoming known for his rocket serve. In an exhibition contest just a couple of days ago he out-served Croatian monster Ivo Karlovic in a serving competition held on court after they completed their match. Karlovic stands a ridiculous 6’10” and has been for several years considered the hardest serving player on tour. While Karlovic struggled to get almost any of his ten serves over 140mph, Raonic routinely eclipsed that mark and even clocked one at 151mph that just missed the service box.
Raonic will be hoping that his career unfolds more closely to that of his idol Pete Sampras, a 14 time Grand Slam champion, than that of Karlovic who is thought viewed as more of a circus act on the circuit.
Milos has already attained several meaningful results in his short time as a professional player. Last summer he and partner Vasek Pospisil defeated Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in a first round doubles match at the Rogers Cup in Toronto. At the time Nadal and Djokovic were ranked one and two in the world in the singles rankings.
Raonic followed that up with a tough match against Nadal in singles play in Japan where the Spaniard won 6-4, 6-4. A respectable score no-doubt considering the nearly 200 ranking points that separated them at the time.
Off season training with coach and former professional Galo Blanco during the off-season clearly paid-off for Raonic. There he got plenty of practice with Spanish players like David Ferrer and Nicolas Almagro – both top-twenty regulars.
Raonic started 2011 by narrowly missing the chance to qualify in Chennai, India but then had his break-out moment at the first Grand Slam of the season in Australia. He battled through three rounds of qualifying action before advancing all the way to the final sixteen players in the field. After knocking off top-ten player Mikhail Youzhny in the third round he was defeated by Ferrer in four sets.
Now with his first tournament victory under his belt and barely any ranking points to defend from a year ago, the potential for Raonic seems limitless.
On the official ATP World Tour website, Raonic lists his goal as becoming a, “consistent top-fifty player with top-ten aspirations.” If he continues his development at this pace, look for him to far surpass these now seemingly modest targets.
While Raonic now moves on to another tournament in Memphis, many will already begin talking about how a player of his size and abilities will fare when he gets to the largest tennis stage at Wimbledon later this year. Canadian tennis fans will be hoping it is not just a coincidence that the young man they call the Maple Leaf Missile grew up dreaming of becoming the next Pistol Pete.