Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Milos Raonic still seeks first Grand Slam title
Canadian working hard to improve his serve-and-volley game
During his six-year professional career, Milos Raonic has steadily progressed up the tennis ladder until reaching a career-best No. 3 ranking in 2016, while winning eight titles and more than $14 million.
But none of his titles include a Grand Slam or even a Masters 1000. He seemed to always run into roadblocks named Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal, who have won 47 majors between them.
Raonic has a combined 8-33 record against the fab four, including 1-8 in Grand Slam matches. His lone win came in the Wimbledon semis last summer, when he stunned Federer in a five-setter.
So Raonic, an articulate, intelligent 26-year-old Canadian, came to an epiphany last year. He realized that at 6-foot-5, he couldn’t outrun, out-defend or beat any of the more mobile big four from the baseline.
Already possessing the third most effective serve on tour behind John Isner and Ivo Karlovic, Raonic wanted to maximize his serve-and-volley attack to shorten the points to help conserve energy.
Many believe that tennis legend John McEnroe had a hand in Raonic reaching his first Grand Slam final, where he lost to Murray in straight sets, as he was hired to hone Raonic’s net-rushing skills.
McEnroe, a three-time Wimbledon champion, hoped to instill some of his fiery
nature into the laid-back Canadian, but it wasn’t evident in the Murray match.
“I wish I’d been a little more outspoken with my energy on the court,” Raonic admitted in a recent conference call to discuss his Tuesday afternoon debut at the upcoming Delray Beach Open. “After I won the semis, I used a lot of energy and there were a lot of nerves being in my first [major] final. I let it build up inside of me without getting it out.”
With McEnroe concentrating on his broadcasting career, Raonic has since hired Richard Krajicek, who’s also 6-5 and was a pure serve-and-volleyer, to coach him. Krajicek, a perennial Top 10 player in the ’90s, was ranked a careerhigh No. 4 in 1999. The lanky Dutchman won 17 titles, including two Masters 1000s and Wimbledon in ’96.
“The thing that sets me aside from these top guys is I need to excel at the 1-2 punch,” Raonic said.
“What I feel I need to add to my game was not only serving well and swelling up the big forehand, but I need to get myself forward to take time away from them, make them always feel I could make that step forward, so they’re never feeling like they could leave the ball sitting in the middle of the court.”
Despite constantly working on his fitness, Raonic has been hampered by injuries throughout his career. A thigh strain played a role in his straight-set quarterfinal loss to Nadal in the Australian Open where he was favored to win after early-round upsets of Nos. 1 and 2, Murray and Djokovic.
Raonic pronounced himself healthy and said the Wimbledon loss made him even hungrier for his first Slam.
Many tennis observers believe tall players such as Raonic, Karlovic, Isner and Sam Querrey are more susceptible to injuries and run out of steam during a twoweek, best-of-five-set major.
However, there have been exceptions, including Juan Martin del Potro, the 6-6 oft-injured Spaniard, who won the U.S. Open in 2009 and is making his 2017 debut in Delray Beach on Tuesday evening. Also, 6-6 Marin Cilic shocked Federer to win the 2014 U.S. Open.
Raonic believes his best chance to win a major is on the slicker courts of Wimbledon. But the hard courts at the Australian Open were clearly playing quicker this year, which makes serveand-volley attackers more effective as was evident when a 35-year-old Federer captured his 18th major title.
Raonic hopes to use the Delray Beach Open as a springboard to his hardcourt season, including Masters 1000 stops in Indian Wells and the Miami Open before continuing his quest to win his first major.
He was scheduled to play here last year but had to pull out with an injury, and in 2010, his rank of 361 wasn’t good enough to get him into qualifying.
“I’m excited to play [here] and create a different story-line, rather than it being the tournament that I didn’t get into,” joked the fourth-ranked Raonic, the highest-ranked player to enter the tournament, surpassing Andy Roddick, who was ranked sixth in 2003.
“I’m well aware of the huge Canadian contingency down there, and I know people will come out to the tournament I always wanted to play. … I’m hopeful it leads to good things for me to get my year going.”