National Bank Omnium | Raonic’s never-ending fight

“It’s been a tough year. I’m still trying to get through a tournament without getting injured.”

So spoke Milos Raonic in 2019, during his last visit to Montreal. Let’s be clear: these are not exactly the words of an athlete who imagines himself practicing his art in the long term.

But here we are five years later, and Raonic seems to be at the same point. He arrives at the National Bank Open as the 180^e world player, the result of a sparse match schedule due to injuries. He has played only 11 matches so far in 2024. That’s already two more than last year. In 2022? Zero. And in 2021, he had played 12.

That’s 32 games since January 2021. Remember that a decade ago, he could play around seventy a year.

Under these circumstances, he needed a pass from the organizers to access the main draw. He will play his 1^er tour Tuesday or Wednesday, against the Dane Holger Rune, 17^e first in the series.

Surprisingly, Raonic doesn’t seem tired of discussing his health problems. Maybe he is, but no matter: the 33-year-old athlete doesn’t show it and took the time to answer questions, Sunday, at a press briefing.

Raonic has reached the point where he is “convinced” that he will carry some aches and pains from his playing career into retirement. “No high-level sport that pushes your body to its limits is healthy. So I’m sure it will come,” he notes.

“Some players have problems, some don’t. [John] McEnroe looks okay. [Boris] Becker seems to be having difficulty. We saw a perfect example in the Olympic torch relay. Amélie Mauresmo was running with the flame without any problem, while Tony Parker seemed to be having a really difficult time.

A still formidable service

It’s not all doom and gloom for Raonic, mind you.

If he was talking about the torch relay, it was because he was in Paris to watch Gojira’s magical performance during the opening ceremony. His level still allows him to treat himself to major tournaments from time to time, like the Olympics. A second experience, 12 years after the first. “I was 21 and at a different point in my career. I’m much more mature today and I experienced it differently,” he says.

On the court, he showed that his serve remains as dangerous as ever. Although he lost early on in Paris against the German Dominik Köpfer, the match went to the limit of three sets, each in a tiebreaker. The Torontonian hit 29 aces in this duel.

Last month, on the grass of the Queen’s Club in London, he hit 47 aces in his first-round match, an ATP record for a best-of-three duel. Observers are tempted to reduce his successes to this aspect alone, which does not seem to shock him too much.

The beginning of the wave

This service means that his matches have never quite had the thrilling side of those of his compatriot Denis Shapovalov, for example.

Still, he created his share of defining moments for Canadian tennis. His breakthrough in 2011 marked the beginning of what would be a new era for the sport in this country. While Montreal fans will remember his run to the 2013 Rogers Cup final, each of his feats was a first for a Canadian: the first Canadian to reach the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam, then the semifinals, then the final. The first to reach the final of a Masters. The first to reach the top 30then the top 20and finally the top 10a journey that led him to 3^e rank in 2016.

“For me, he was a big rival,” recalled Vasek Pospisil, who lost in the semifinals to Raonic in Montreal in 2013. “We are the same age, we were No. 1 and No. 2 in Canada for a long time. We played each other four times, we each have two victories. I would have liked to win here. He had good results and gave a lot for Canada. His individual results attracted more eyes to tennis here.”

“Our relationship has changed over time. At first, we were young and didn’t talk much. Now, the mentality between us has changed a bit, we have gained maturity, and life after tennis is coming soon.”