Rise of the booming star Milos Raonic (Part One)
From world number 156 at the start of this season, the Canadian Milos Raonic cruised to world number 25 in May 2011 through his impressive run of form. The youngster displayed extra-ordinary skills to take a huge leap in the ATP
rankings and led shined his country.
Raonic started this year standing at the world number 156. He was ousted from the qualifiers at Chennai but went berserk at Australian Open where he reached the fourth round through qualifiers. On route to the fourth round, he
upset 22nd seeded French Michael Llodra and tenth seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny. However, in the fourth round, Raonic lost to seventh seeded Spaniard David Ferrer in troublesome four sets. His run at this Melbourne Grand Slam led him rose fifty-eight
spots.
The Montenegro native, Raonic upset second seeded Taipei Yen-Hsun Lu at Johannesburg, where made a second round berth. After this, he re-ignited his winning streaks to make a nine match winning run. Raonic won his first ATP title
at San Jose after trashing top seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco in straight sets and became the first Canadian to clinch a title in sixteen years. After this amazing streak in which he never lost a set, Raonic jumped 25 spots up in the rankings to number
59 at 14th of February.
20-year-old carried his momentum at Memphis and surprised everyone after dumping second seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco. He then swat past Czech Radek Stepanek after smacking his career and tournament high 38 aces. Raonic continued
his ways and stunned fourth seeded American Mardy Fish to reach the title round. Despite losing his streak with a 6-7(7), 7-6(11), 5-7 loss against the top seeded American Andy Roddick, the Canadian rose to his career high rank at number 37.
After this, the rising star led his country to glory after defeating Mexico in his David Cup debut. He triumphed over Daniel Gerza and Manuel Sanchez in straight sets. Raonic’s form dipped afterwards as he exited from the third
rounds of Indian Wells 1000 Masters event, Monte Carlo 1000 Masters event and Barcelona, and from the opening round from Miami 1000 Masters event.
The Thornhill resident, Raonic maintained his high spirit at Estoril where he reached the semi-finals before retiring due to lower back injury. He couldn’t recover from it and fell to a four match losing streak. Despite his dismal
performance in early May, Raonic rose to his career best rank at world number 25 in May.
Raonic told about his secret of climbing high in the singles rankings, “I think one of the reasons that I’m able to deal quite well with the pressure is because when I’m competing or down I’m really playing for myself. I’m not
wondering what others are thinking about. I love the outside support, I love the game, and at the end of the day if I win or a lose, I can only blame myself.”
He also credited Tennis Canada and stated that it is one of the worlds best equipped and has one of the better systems worldwide. Raonic also encourages youth of Canada to believe in going at the top of tennis world just like they
believe the same in Hockey.
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