While most Canadian boys grew up in the ’90s idolizing the likes of Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman and Patrick Roy — Milos Raonic spent his days watching ‘Pistol’ Pete Sampras make mincemeat of the professional men’s tennis tour.
In the past couple of weeks, Raonic has unveiled a missile of his own to the world.
He went on a lengthy run in the Australian Open, falling two sets shy of becoming the first Canadian male to make a grand slam quarter-final. This past week he won the SAP Open in San Jose, becoming the first Canadian in 16 years to win on the ATP Tour.
He hasn’t just been beating up on the lesser lites of the tennis world, he has left a swath of highly ranked players in his wake.
At the Aussie Open he beat World No. 22 Michael Llodra and No. 10 Mikhail Youzhny. At the SAP Open he knocked off No. 44 Xavier Malisse, former No. 4 James Blake, and current No. 9 Fernando Verdasco, the tournament’s defending champion.
For good measure he beat Verdasco again on Wednesday — just three days later — in the first round of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships. On Thursday he knocked off former No. 8 Radek Stepanek
Raonic started the year ranked 157. He is now 59th in the world and sure to see another jump in his ranking following his current event.
One could almost be forgiven for mistaking him for Sampras — if the five-inch height difference is wiped out.
Both have a mop of dark curly hair on their head, dress conservative on the court, have a terrific forehand and possess one of the most lethal weapons of their time from the service line.
Raonic’s devastating serve topped out at 149 miles per hour (239.7 kilometres per hour) in the SAP Open final.
That’s faster than any car I’ve owned.
By contrast Zdeno Chara set a record at the NHL All-star game skills competition with a slap shot of 105.9 mph.
Obviously Raonic still has some developing to do but the similarities are there.
He’s just 20, but already has tennis analysts declaring him a star and predicting he could one day be the world’s top player.
The praise is heady stuff indeed for Raonic — born in Montenegro but raised in Thornhill, Ont. — but a dream come true for Tennis Canada.
Even the Red Deer Tennis Club hopes it will trickle down to them.
“I’m expecting to have more and more parents bring kids into tennis. With more kids playing tennis, you’re going to have more good players,” said RDTC coach Rene Simon. “But Tennis Canada has been working on this a good 15 years, this didn’t just happen. This is planned. There’s lots more players coming. It’s a storm.”
What makes it even better is he is not turning his back on the country that raised him up like Greg Rusedski, the last Canadian to win on the ATP tour. He took British citizenship shortly after his 1995 win.
“It’s huge,” said Simon. “The problem with tennis in Canada is everything is about hockey. I love hockey, but we need to show there are other sports too, and tennis is one of them.”
Canadian tennis players face the same issues of many summer sports athletes, the long winter makes it tough to go year round.
While the RDTC is working towards building a permanent indoor facility and operates out of a temporary dome when the snow flies, it is still an uphill battle for local tennis players. The best of them must consider migrating to a warmer climate if they really want to advance.
Raonic, for example, moved to Spain a year ago to train full time with his coach and the results are obvious.
“In Ontario they can travel back and forth to the U.S., where as (in Alberta) it’s crazy expensive to go there,” said Simon who coaches one such young talent, Matus Polakovic, who comes up from Calgary for his guidance. “I have one nine year-old (student) they already are asking to move to Ontario. He’s from Calgary, but he’s the best nine-year-old basically. But if his parents don’t send him there, he’s going to get stuck here.”
Another issue tennis in Canada has is that only the absolute top players get any coverage on the ATP tour here, even though being ranked in the top few hundred in the world would put that player among the best in the game.
The hope is Raonic can fulfill the prophecies of those who say he could one day follow in the footsteps of his idol and become one of the best in the world, making him a guiding light for those who follow and bring them the attention they deserve as well.
“He looks like one of those guys — which is scary because he’s one of ours. But he looks like he can do it,” said Simon. “But again, before the Australian Open he was 157th in the world, that’s a huge jump. But we didn’t even know we had a guy who was ranked 150. In the NHL the 150th player in the world is a first liner on any team.”
It’s a lot to put on one 20 year-old.
Taylor Hall is only expected to save the Oilers.
The entire sport of tennis in Canada is hitching its wagon to Raonic.
jaldrich@www.reddeeradvocate.com
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