It’s been quite a ride for Milos Raonic and Canadian tennis fans.
He held high hopes going into the London 2012 Olympic Games, ranked 23rd in the world. Earlier this year, he moved from No. 37 to No. 22 – a spot never before held by a Canadian man in world singles tennis rankings.
The rise onto the world stage of the 21-year-old from Thornhill, Ont., can best be described as meteoric and the young star now also holds a place in the record books.
While Raonic won’t realize his Olympic dream, he will be remembered for giving the No. 6 seed, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, a fight to remember. The third set of their second-round contest took 179 minutes to decide. In the end, Tsonga prevailed, 25-23. The two players split the first two sets with identical 6-3 scores.
The players shook hands and hugged at the net afterwards before Tsonga celebrated by dancing around the court and pulling at his shirt collar with joy.
Raonic’s going home, to focus on building on what’s been a very good year.
In the months after his win at the Chennai Open tournament in Chennai, India on Jan. 8, 2012, Raonic moved up to 22nd on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) rankings.
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Raonic dispatched the tournament’s top-seed, Janko Tipsarevic, of Serbia, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4). Tipsarevic was ranked ninth in the world going into the tournament.
Raonic was ranked 11th among the pros who entered the Barcelona Open in late April. On April 27, he beat the world’s fourth-ranked player, Andy Murray, to move on to the semi-finals on the weekend. Raonic has now beaten six top-10 players in his career.
Raonic’s run in Barcelona came to an end a day later in the semi-finals, where he lost a close match to David Ferrer of Spain, who advanced to the final at that tournament for the fourth time.
Raonic was born in 1990 in what is now Montenegro, the son of two engineers. The family moved to Canada when Raonic was three. Two of his siblings have since moved back to Montenegro, but Raonic says he’s committed to Canada and wants to help develop the game here.
Raonic started playing tennis when he was eight, choosing the sport over hockey, which he felt was not suited to his drive for individual success.
He turned pro in 2008 and was ranked 156th in the world by the end of 2010.
That’s when everything changed.
Raonic burst onto the world stage by reaching the Round of 16 at the Australian Open in January 2011. He beat two seeded players, including world 10th ranked Mikhail Youzhny, before losing to seventh seed David Ferrer in four sets.
His performance in the season’s first grand slam did more than just vault him into the top 100 in the world rankings: it got him noticed. After beating Raonic in a hard-fought match, Ferrer described him as an “unbelievable player.”
What was also causing a tremendous amount of buzz was the serve of the 6’5″ Canadian. In his four main draw matches in Melbourne, he averaged more than 22 aces per match.
Raonic continued his momentum at the ATP event in San Jose, California, defeating another top 10 player (Fernando Verdasco) in the final of the SAP Open.
He was the first Canadian to win an ATP tour event in 16 years.
He extended his winning streak to eight matches in Memphis and fell just short of back-to-back titles.
Despite the loss, he still earned high praise from his veteran opponent.
“He’s as exciting of a talent as we’ve seen in a while,” said Roddick. “I still think he can learn a lot about playing the game, but it won’t surprise me if he’s top 10 sooner rather than later.”
If Roddick is right, Canadian tennis fans will have much more to cheer about in the future.
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