Big Serve, Bright Future for a Young Canadian
By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY
(napisane przed meczem z Hewittem)
Spoiler:
In the Arena
Big Serve, Bright Future for a Young Canadian
By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY
MELBOURNE, Australia — It is the shot, the gift, that could make Milos Raonic a big tennis star in an era already brimming with them. It begins with Raonic selecting the most promising of three balls and stepping to the baseline.
Milos Raonic was well on his way to a leading role in the game last year when he injured his hip in a freakish fall in his first Wimbledon. But after surgery, he is on the rise again.
Milos Raonic will face Lleyton Hewitt at Rod Laver Arena.
Eight is the preferred number of bounces, and then comes the unusual rocking motion in which Raonic keeps the face of his racket parallel to the court. One rock and then a second as he begins to rear back for the payoff: the toss, the leg drive, the fearsome contact, the disgruntled opponent.
If you have not yet seen the Raonic serve, there should be plenty of opportunities in the days and seasons ahead. Raonic, a 21-year-old Canadian, was well on his way to a leading role in the game last year when he injured his right hip after slipping on the grass in the second round of his first Wimbledon.
After surgery and a halting return to the circuit last season, he is back on the rise in 2012, winning the Chennai Open without losing his serve and now reaching the third round of the Australian Open after beating Philipp Petzschner of Germany, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, 7-5, on Thursday in the intimate confines of Show Court 3.
Bigger courts are in his immediate future. His next match will be Saturday in Rod Laver Arena against Lleyton Hewitt, the Australian who was once No. 1 but has dropped to 181st. Win that match and Raonic would most likely play for the first time against Novak Djokovic, the defending champion and current No. 1.
Raonic, a mature and earnest young man who likes his handshakes firm, is not daunted.
“My goal is to be one of the best, it’s that simple,” he said in an interview Thursday. “I’ve heard it many times, and I’ve wanted it many times. You watch TV, you watch, in my case, Pete Sampras play many times. You don’t see him playing on an outside court. You see him play in Rod Laver Arena, you see him in Arthur Ashe Stadium, in Centre Court at Wimbledon and in Philippe Chatrier.
“These are the courts you want to play on. Obviously, if you’re playing a top guy, you can be on there, but to play on there consistently happens if you are one of the top guys. That’s the way I look at it. It’s where I want to be. It’s where I’ve grown up looking forward to being.”
Raonic, who is seeded 23rd, is yet another extraordinary young player with connections to the former Yugoslavia. Bernard Tomic, the 19-year-old Australian who is also in the third round, is the son of parents who left Croatia for Germany before moving to Australia.
Tomic and Raonic are each managing to thrive at a time when the physical demands of the game are favoring older players. Eight of the 32 men playing in the third round will be 30 years or older, including Hewitt, who will turn 31 next month.
Raonic was born in Titograd, now known as Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro. But he left with his family for Canada at age 3 as they sought refuge from the regional conflict. Raonic was trained in Canada with considerable support from the national federation, and is the present and future of its Davis Cup team. But he has avoided using his home nation as a measuring stick for his tennis.
“I’m not proud to say this, but since I was young my dad and mom always told me: ‘Don’t compare yourself to another Canadian tennis player. Your goal is not to be better than them. Your goal is to be one of the best,’ ” Raonic said. “That I heard many times, and that’s really been engraved into my mind.”
Raonic considers Toronto home, but he lives in Monte Carlo, travels frequently to visit his relatives and siblings in Montenegro and also has a base in Barcelona, Spain, where he trains at the academy run in part by his coach, the former touring pro Galo Blanco. Asked if he sees himself as a citizen of the world, Raonic agreed, to a degree.
He and Blanco, at first glance, make an odd pair: the tall, relatively flat-hitting North American with awesome power and fast-court game and the small, topspin-heavy Spaniard who grew up on clay. But Raonic said that he benefited from Blanco’s ability to take him outside his natural comfort zone.
“He liked playing guys like me, especially on clay courts that he felt he could move around, so I guess it gives me that sense,” said Raonic, who added that Blanco was also his most frequent hitting partner. “I think he can see the things that he would, as a small player, take advantage of in my game, and so we work on these things a lot. And he’s able to see what I would do that would frustrate a small player, because most guys are shorter than me that I do play.”
Enlarge This Image
Darren Whiteside/Reuters
The 6-foot-5 Raonic, who is seeded 23rd, tied for first with Roger Federer in 2011 for points won on first serves, at 79 percent.
Hewitt, at 5 feet 11, meets that criterion, but Raonic, at 6-5, is not quite a giant by today’s tennis standards. Three other men in the third round in Melbourne are 6-8 or taller: Ivo Karlovic of Croatia, Kevin Anderson of South Africa and John Isner, the American who is also a candidate for the world’s most intimidating server.
Isner led the tour by holding serve 91 percent of the time last season, with Roger Federer at 90 and Raonic at 88. Raonic tied for first with Federer for points won on first serve at 79 percent.
There is much more to Raonic’s game. His forehand is a big weapon. He has a crisp one-handed backhand chip and reasonably good touch around the net, and he has improved his mobility considerably after struggling during his teenage growth spurts.
Petzschner repeatedly tried to attack Raonic’s backhand Thursday only to discover that Raonic, who reached the fourth round here last year as a qualifier, was quick enough to get in position to pound an inside-out forehand.
The hip surgery, which was elective, has been a success thus far, even if the decision to go through with it last July caused stress for everybody around him, Raonic said. Six months later, he is back to stressing out the opposition, never more than when he has finished bouncing the ball eight times and rocking twice with his strings parallel to the court.
“It’s just the grip I have,” he said. “I keep my wrist in a bit naturally. I don’t know why. I’ve never really thought about it.”
Told that he should not start thinking about it, Raonic laughed.
“Never want to,” he said. “You’re right in that sense. Thinking is not always the best thing.”
Big Serve, Bright Future for a Young Canadian
By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY
MELBOURNE, Australia — It is the shot, the gift, that could make Milos Raonic a big tennis star in an era already brimming with them. It begins with Raonic selecting the most promising of three balls and stepping to the baseline.
Milos Raonic was well on his way to a leading role in the game last year when he injured his hip in a freakish fall in his first Wimbledon. But after surgery, he is on the rise again.
Milos Raonic will face Lleyton Hewitt at Rod Laver Arena.
Eight is the preferred number of bounces, and then comes the unusual rocking motion in which Raonic keeps the face of his racket parallel to the court. One rock and then a second as he begins to rear back for the payoff: the toss, the leg drive, the fearsome contact, the disgruntled opponent.
If you have not yet seen the Raonic serve, there should be plenty of opportunities in the days and seasons ahead. Raonic, a 21-year-old Canadian, was well on his way to a leading role in the game last year when he injured his right hip after slipping on the grass in the second round of his first Wimbledon.
After surgery and a halting return to the circuit last season, he is back on the rise in 2012, winning the Chennai Open without losing his serve and now reaching the third round of the Australian Open after beating Philipp Petzschner of Germany, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, 7-5, on Thursday in the intimate confines of Show Court 3.
Bigger courts are in his immediate future. His next match will be Saturday in Rod Laver Arena against Lleyton Hewitt, the Australian who was once No. 1 but has dropped to 181st. Win that match and Raonic would most likely play for the first time against Novak Djokovic, the defending champion and current No. 1.
Raonic, a mature and earnest young man who likes his handshakes firm, is not daunted.
“My goal is to be one of the best, it’s that simple,” he said in an interview Thursday. “I’ve heard it many times, and I’ve wanted it many times. You watch TV, you watch, in my case, Pete Sampras play many times. You don’t see him playing on an outside court. You see him play in Rod Laver Arena, you see him in Arthur Ashe Stadium, in Centre Court at Wimbledon and in Philippe Chatrier.
“These are the courts you want to play on. Obviously, if you’re playing a top guy, you can be on there, but to play on there consistently happens if you are one of the top guys. That’s the way I look at it. It’s where I want to be. It’s where I’ve grown up looking forward to being.”
Raonic, who is seeded 23rd, is yet another extraordinary young player with connections to the former Yugoslavia. Bernard Tomic, the 19-year-old Australian who is also in the third round, is the son of parents who left Croatia for Germany before moving to Australia.
Tomic and Raonic are each managing to thrive at a time when the physical demands of the game are favoring older players. Eight of the 32 men playing in the third round will be 30 years or older, including Hewitt, who will turn 31 next month.
Raonic was born in Titograd, now known as Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro. But he left with his family for Canada at age 3 as they sought refuge from the regional conflict. Raonic was trained in Canada with considerable support from the national federation, and is the present and future of its Davis Cup team. But he has avoided using his home nation as a measuring stick for his tennis.
“I’m not proud to say this, but since I was young my dad and mom always told me: ‘Don’t compare yourself to another Canadian tennis player. Your goal is not to be better than them. Your goal is to be one of the best,’ ” Raonic said. “That I heard many times, and that’s really been engraved into my mind.”
Raonic considers Toronto home, but he lives in Monte Carlo, travels frequently to visit his relatives and siblings in Montenegro and also has a base in Barcelona, Spain, where he trains at the academy run in part by his coach, the former touring pro Galo Blanco. Asked if he sees himself as a citizen of the world, Raonic agreed, to a degree.
He and Blanco, at first glance, make an odd pair: the tall, relatively flat-hitting North American with awesome power and fast-court game and the small, topspin-heavy Spaniard who grew up on clay. But Raonic said that he benefited from Blanco’s ability to take him outside his natural comfort zone.
“He liked playing guys like me, especially on clay courts that he felt he could move around, so I guess it gives me that sense,” said Raonic, who added that Blanco was also his most frequent hitting partner. “I think he can see the things that he would, as a small player, take advantage of in my game, and so we work on these things a lot. And he’s able to see what I would do that would frustrate a small player, because most guys are shorter than me that I do play.”
Enlarge This Image
Darren Whiteside/Reuters
The 6-foot-5 Raonic, who is seeded 23rd, tied for first with Roger Federer in 2011 for points won on first serves, at 79 percent.
Hewitt, at 5 feet 11, meets that criterion, but Raonic, at 6-5, is not quite a giant by today’s tennis standards. Three other men in the third round in Melbourne are 6-8 or taller: Ivo Karlovic of Croatia, Kevin Anderson of South Africa and John Isner, the American who is also a candidate for the world’s most intimidating server.
Isner led the tour by holding serve 91 percent of the time last season, with Roger Federer at 90 and Raonic at 88. Raonic tied for first with Federer for points won on first serve at 79 percent.
There is much more to Raonic’s game. His forehand is a big weapon. He has a crisp one-handed backhand chip and reasonably good touch around the net, and he has improved his mobility considerably after struggling during his teenage growth spurts.
Petzschner repeatedly tried to attack Raonic’s backhand Thursday only to discover that Raonic, who reached the fourth round here last year as a qualifier, was quick enough to get in position to pound an inside-out forehand.
The hip surgery, which was elective, has been a success thus far, even if the decision to go through with it last July caused stress for everybody around him, Raonic said. Six months later, he is back to stressing out the opposition, never more than when he has finished bouncing the ball eight times and rocking twice with his strings parallel to the court.
“It’s just the grip I have,” he said. “I keep my wrist in a bit naturally. I don’t know why. I’ve never really thought about it.”
Told that he should not start thinking about it, Raonic laughed.
“Never want to,” he said. “You’re right in that sense. Thinking is not always the best thing.”
