Milos Raonic

Milos Raonic (; sr, Милош Раонић, Miloš Raonić, ; born December 27, 1990) is a Canadian inactive professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he first achieved on 21 November 2016, making him the highest-ranked Canadian player in history. Raonic is the first Canadian man in the Open Era to reach the Australian Open semifinals, the French Open quarterfinals, and the Wimbledon final. He has won eight ATP Tour titles.Raonic's career highlights include a major final at the 2016 Wimbledon Championships; two major semifinals at the 2014 Wimbledon Championships and 2016 Australian Open; and four ATP World Tour Masters 1000 finals at the 2013 Canadian Open, 2014 Paris Masters, 2016 Indian Wells Masters, and the 2020 Cincinnati Masters. Raonic first gained widespread recognition by reaching the fourth round of the 2011 Australian Open as a qualifier, where he was said to be the future of professional tennis. Coupled with his first ATP Tour title three weeks later, his world ranking rose from No. 152 to No. 37 in one month, and he was awarded the 2011 ATP Newcomer of the Year. Raonic is the first player born in the 1990s to win an ATP Tour title, to be ranked in the top 10, and to qualify for the ATP Tour Finals (the latter of which he achieved in 2014). Raonic is frequently described as having one of the best serves among his contemporaries. Statistically, Raonic is one of the best servers in the Open Era, winning 91% of service games to rank third of all time. Aided by his serve, he plays an all-court style with an emphasis on short points. All his singles titles have been won on hardcourts. His overall winning percentage of 68% is one of the highest among currently active players.

Early and personal life

Raonic was born on December 27, 1990, in Titograd, SFR Yugoslavia (now Podgorica, Montenegro), and is of Serb heritage. Prompted by the breakup of Yugoslavia and subsequent ethnic conflict, and seeking more professional opportunities, his family moved to Canada in 1994 when he was three, settling in Brampton, Ontario.

His parents are both engineers; his father, Dušan, holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, while his mother, Vesna, has degrees in mechanical and computer engineering, including a master's. He has two older siblings: his sister, Jelena, is eleven years older, while his brother, Momir, is nine years older. Raonic's uncle, Branimir Gvozdenović, is a politician in the Government of Montenegro, where he has served as Deputy Prime Minister. Raonic is fluent in Serbian and English.

His first, brief introduction to tennis came at age six or seven with a week-long tennis camp at the Bramalea Tennis Club in Brampton, followed by weekly hour-long group sessions led by tennis coach Steve Gibson, who recognized his potential. He moved to nearby Thornhill, Ontario soon after, and one or two years passed before he asked his parents if he could play again. His father sought out coach Casey Curtis at the Blackmore Tennis Club in neighbouring Richmond Hill, Ontario. Curtis was at first reluctant to take on Raonic, but was convinced after Raonic demonstrated his commitment by working with his father and a ball machine daily for two months. Years later, Raonic said he chose tennis because of its "individuality and ecause hefelt ecould train more alone and on a ball machine with isdad".

Raonic and Curtis worked together "twice a day, almost every day, for the next nine years." Provided that he complete his courses, Raonic was allowed to reduce his hours of attendance at Thornhill Elementary School so that he could practise more, which he did both before and after school. His parents and siblings supported his tennis, taking turns driving him to practice and tournaments, but did not push him to it or interfere with coaching. Rather, they emphasized school throughout, insisting that he maintain academic excellence as a prerequisite to playing tennis. He attended Thornhill Secondary School, and accelerated his course load—achieving an 82 percent average—so that he could graduate a year early. Late in 2007, at the age of 16, Raonic moved to Montreal as one of the first group of players at Tennis Canada's new National Tennis Centre, thus marking the end of his formal relationship with Curtis.

Raonic's four favourite sports teams are FC Barcelona, the Toronto Blue Jays, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Toronto Raptors. He played in the 2016 NBA All-Star Celebrity Game held in Toronto.

He worked for Rogers Sportsnet as an analyst while recovering from injury for their broadcast of the 2011 Canadian Open. In November 2011, Raonic won an exhibition match against his childhood idol, Pete Sampras, which was dubbed "The Face Off." In 2012, he took up residence in Monte Carlo, Monaco in a 50metre² (538sqft) apartment, located minutes away from the Monte Carlo Country Club—his "home" tennis club and the site of the Monte-Carlo Masters tournament—and Stade Louis II, which he uses for off-court training. Raonic was in a relationship with Canadian model Danielle Knudson.

Tennis career

Amateur career

Raonic first competed at a junior event sanctioned by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) in October 2003 at the age of 12. Two years later, in October 2005, he picked up his first singles match victory at age 14. His first juniors titles in both singles and doubles came at the same Grade 4 tournament in October 2006. Later that year, he won the Prince Cup doubles title, partnering fellow Canadian Vasek Pospisil for the first time at an ITF event. Pospisil and Raonic partnered at four more junior tournaments, including the 2008 Wimbledon Championships and the 2008 French Open, reaching the semifinals in the latter. His most notable titles as a junior were in doubles, winning two Grade 1 events in 2008 partnered with Bradley Klahn.

Over five years, Raonic compiled a 53–30 win–loss record in singles, and a 56–24 record in doubles on the ITF Junior Circuit. Except for reaching the semifinals at the 2008 French Open in doubles, Raonic did not advance past the second round of junior Grand Slam events. His career-high combined junior ranking, which considers both singles and doubles results, was No. 35.

While an amateur, Raonic played in fourteen professional tournaments against adults in North America: ten ITF Futures events at the bottom tier of professional tennis; three ATP Challenger Tour events at the middle tier; and one ATP World Tour event at the top tier. He played his first professional circuit match in the qualifying draw of an ITF Futures tournament in Toronto in October 2005 at the age of 14; he won his first professional circuit main draw match at an ITF Futures tournament in Gatineau, Quebec, in March 2007 against Fabrice Martin. With the win, Raonic earned his first world ranking of No. 1518. He played his first professional circuit doubles match at the same tournament, partnered with Pospisil again. Raonic lost his first ATP Challenger Tour match in Granby, Quebec, in July 2007 against Gary Lugassy. Raonic won his first ITF Futures doubles title in Gatineau, Quebec in March 2008, and reached his first ITF Futures singles final two weeks later in Sherbrooke, Quebec. He received a wildcard to the qualifying tournament of the 2008 Canadian Open, but lost in the first round to Alexander Kudryavtsev. The match was his first in the ATP World Tour.

By the summer of 2008, Raonic had received scholarship offers from several colleges, including the University of Michigan, Princeton, and Northwestern University, and committed to play for the University of Virginia that fall while studying finance. Just two weeks before school started, he consulted his parents about his plan to turn professional instead. Raonic and his parents agreed that he would take correspondence courses in finance from Athabasca University while starting a professional tennis career, setting a deadline of two years for reaching the top100. During that summer, his world ranking ranged between No. 915 and No. 937. Raonic reached the top100 in January 2011, around five months later than the target deadline. He thus turned down the scholarships and turned professional, agreeing to be represented by the sports agency SFX. University of Virginia men's tennis coach Brian Boland later commented that "I have only seen two guys turn down scholarships and then succeed quickly on the Tour: Sam Querrey and Milos Raonic."

2008–2010: Early professional years

After turning professional in September 2008 until the end of 2010, Raonic played both singles and doubles, primarily at ITF Futures and ATP Challenger tournaments. He won his first ITF Futures singles title in March 2009 in Montreal. He added three more singles titles and five doubles titles at the ITF Futures level in 2009 and 2010. He was less successful at the ATP Challenger level, tallying only one title. In his fourth tournament after turning professional, Raonic won the doubles title at the Men's Rimouski Challenger in November 2008, partnered with Pospisil.

At the ATP World Tour level, Raonic gained entry into few tournaments, compiling a main draw record of three wins and five losses over nearly two and half years. In 2009, Raonic again received a wildcard for the qualifying tournament of the Canadian Open. This time, he beat No. 77 Teymuraz Gabashvili and No. 113 Michaël Llodra to qualify for the main draw of an ATP World Tour tournament for the first time. In the first round, he held a match point, but lost to No. 10 Fernando González in three sets. The matches against Gabashvili and González were the first singles matches for Raonic against a top100 player and top10 player, respectively.

A year later, at the 2010 Canadian Open, Raonic and Pospisil were given a doubles wildcard to the main draw, marking Raonic's first ever ATP World Tour doubles match. They won their first round match against Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. It was first time that the world Nos. 1 and 2 had played together in a tour doubles match since Jimmy Connors and Arthur Ashe did so in 1976. In the second round, Raonic and Pospisil lost to reigning Wimbledon doubles champions Jürgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner. After the match, Raonic said: "Our goal here is pretty much as ambassadors to Canada. The more players that we can get to come, the more people we can get going to take tennis lessons."

Less than a month later, Raonic gained entry into a Grand Slam tournament for the first time at the 2010 US Open. He qualified for the main draw, but lost in the first round to Carsten Ball. Raonic's first ATP main draw singles victory came in September 2010 at the Malaysian Open against No. 105 Igor Kunitsyn. He followed this with a second round victory over No. 31 Sergiy Stakhovsky. The following week, Raonic lost in the second round of the 2010 Japan Open to No. 1 Nadal. This marked his first singles match against a player ranked No. 1, and his first singles match against a member of the Big Four—a quartet of dominant tennis players including Nadal, Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Andy Murray.
Raonic's coaching relationship evolved during his early professional years. Since late 2007, Raonic had been working with Tennis Canada coaches—including Guillaume Marx, Head Boys National Coach—based out of the National Training Centre at Jarry Park in Montreal. In November 2009, with Raonic's world ranking at No. 377, Tennis Canada hired recently retired former player Frédéric Niemeyer to coach Raonic and travel with him for 18 weeks during the 2010 season. Toward the end of 2010, however, Niemeyer decided to travel less owing to "family considerations." As a result, Tennis Canada arranged for a two-week trial period with former No. 40 Galo Blanco in co-operation with Niemeyer, including tournaments in Malaysia and Japan in late September and early October. Over this period, Raonic climbed from No. 237 to No. 155. Tennis Canada hired Blanco, and Raonic moved to Barcelona to train with Blanco and trainer Tony Estalella. Commenting on the training regiment, Blanco said "the off-season Milos had this winter in Barcelona was amazing. We never saw anything like that before, working the way he worked for six weeks."

2011: Top 25 and first ATP Tour title

The first two months of 2011 represented a significant breakthrough for Raonic, as he rose from No. 156 at the beginning of January to No. 37 by the end of February. In doing so, he became the highest-ranked Canadian male ever. He began this climb by qualifying for the Australian Open main draw. His first round victory over Björn Phau marked his first victory in a main draw Grand Slam match. In the second round, he defeated No. 22 seed Llodra, becoming the first Canadian man in 10 years to reach the third round of a Grand Slam singles tournament. With his career-first victory over a top10 player (Mikhail Youzhny) in the third round, he became the first qualifier to make the fourth round of a major since Marcelo Filippini at the 1999 French Open.

Despite losing in the fourth round to No. 7 David Ferrer, Raonic received rave reviews for his Australian Open performance. Patrick McEnroe said "Raonic sthe real deal". BBC Sport referred to Raonic as part of "a new generation". Martina Navratilova referred to Raonic as "a new star" saying that "the sky is the limit". ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' referred to Raonic as a "future superstar".

Two weeks later, Raonic won his first ATP title at the Pacific Coast Championships, with victories over No. 45 Xavier Malisse, No. 170 James Blake, No. 74 Ričardas Berankis, and No. 9 Fernando Verdasco. With the victory, he became the first player born in the 1990s to win an ATP title, and the youngest winner since Marin Čilić won the 2008 Connecticut Open at age 19. Raonic's victory was the first ATP title by a Canadian since Greg Rusedski in 1995.

The following week, Raonic reached the final of an ATP 500 tournament for the first time at the U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships. He defeated Verdasco for the second time in three days in the first round, and No. 17 Mardy Fish in the semifinal. In the final, he lost in three sets to No. 8 Roddick, with Roddick making a diving forehand to break serve for the match on his fifth championship point. Roddick stated: "That's the best shot I've ever hit in my life, considering the circumstance."

With his improved ranking (No. 37), Raonic earned direct entry to Grand Slam tournaments and other ATP World Tour events for the first time. He reached the third round at both the Indian Wells Masters and the Monte-Carlo Masters. In May, Raonic rose to a new career-high ranking of No. 25. He was seeded for the first time at a Grand Slam event at the French Open, but lost in the first round to Michael Berrer. At the Halle Open, Raonic reached his first ATP World Tour doubles final, partnered with Robin Haase. The pair lost to Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi in the deciding super tiebreak. During his second round singles match at Wimbledon against Gilles Müller, Raonic retired with an early lead after injuring his right hip when he slipped and fell on the grass. He underwent hip surgery which prevented him from competing until September. His only significant result in the latter half of 2011 after returning from injury was a semifinal appearance at the Stockholm Open, where he lost to Gaël Monfils.

2012: Continued rise and first title defence

Raonic began 2012 with titles in two of his first three tournaments, starting with his second ATP title at the Chennai Open in India. He had back-to-back wins over top10 players at a tournament for the first time, beating Nicolás Almagro in the semifinals and Janko Tipsarević in the final. Raonic held serve during the entire tournament, becoming the first player to do so since Federer at the 2008 Halle Open. He lost in the third round of the Australian Open to Lleyton Hewitt. In February, Raonic defended his title at the Pacific Coast Championships, defeating Denis Istomin in the final for his third ATP title. The following week in Memphis, Raonic reached the final of the U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships for the second straight year, but lost to Melzer.

In the spring, Raonic played his first three matches against No. 3 Federer on three different surfaces: hard court in the third round of the Indian Wells Masters; clay in the second round at the Madrid Open; and grass in the quarterfinals at the Halle Open. On each occasion, Raonic won the first set before losing the next two. After the Halle Open match, Federer remarked: "I am happy to have beaten him now because by the end of my career, he'll be serving at 300km/h." He defeated No. 4 Murray in straight sets in the quarterfinals at the Barcelona Open