Thornhill’s Raonic earns praise from tennis legends ahead of today’s second round match
This week earns top 10 ATP recognition

YorkRegion.com
Aug. 6, 2014
David Li

When Milos Raonic plays his second round match of the Rogers Cup this evening, it won’t only be tennis fans keeping a close watch.

The meteoric rise of the former Thornhill Secondary student has also caught the attention of some of tennis’ biggest names — past and present.

One of them is former world No. 1, Stefan Edberg, who was inducted into the Rogers Cup Hall of Fame Tuesday evening.

Edberg still clearly recalls his first impression of the Thornhill tennis ace back in 2011 at a tournament in Sweden.

“First time I actually saw him was in the Stockholm Open years ago, and I was quite astonished the way he served at that particular time,” said the six-time grand slam champion.

Today, Raonic has six Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tour titles to his credit and has firmly established himself as a consistent top 10 player.

In fact, on Monday, Raonic was officially recognized by the ATP’s CEO, Chris Kermode, for achieving a top 10 ranking on the ATP tour.

While Edberg acknowledges Raonic’s rise in the sport over the past few years, he believes the 23-year-old’s ceiling is still much higher.

“I have been following him more closely now on the tour, and he’s really improved quite a bit now and he’s still probably got more room to improve,” Edberg continued, currently coaching tennis great Roger Federer.

“He’s definitely on the rise, and the way he’s playing now is he’s a threat to anybody,” Edberg said of Raonic. “I think he showed that at Wimbledon and over the last few weeks,” added the 48-year-old former world No. 1 player.

Current world no. 3 player and 17-Grand-Slam winner, Roger Federer, agrees with his coach’s assessment of the Thornhill tennis ace.

“He’s made his move now in the rankings in the last year or so, getting into the top 10, making the semis of a slam, winning tournaments, playing more solid week by week,” said Federer of Raonic, the current world No 6.

Despite a perfect 5 - 0 career record against the Thornhill tennis star, Federer says Raonic’s reaction after their semi-final match-up at Wimbledon suggests the 23-year-old has the mindset and determination to take that next step in his development.

“I felt he was really happy being there (at the semi-finals of Wimbledon), but not happy that he lost. That’s the kind of attitude you want to see — that’s the winner mentality.”

While Raonic himself is happy with his progression, he believes the key to continued success comes from taking it week by week and match by match.

“It’s great all the things that have happened the past year — the progress I have made, the development I’ve been fortunate to go through,” said Raonic.

“It’s about getting better each week and figuring out a way to win matches,” he added.

With a huge crowd expected to cheer him on tonight at the Rexall Centre, Raonic will be looking to win his second round match against American Jack Sock.