Already Canada’s highest-ranked male singles player ever, Milos Raonic has added even more historic accolades to his name thanks to a successful 2013 season on the ATP World Tour.
The first Canadian to hit Top 10 on the ATP rankings, the first Canadian in 55 years to make the final of Rogers Cup presented by National Bank, and a huge role in leading the Canadian Davis Cup team to its first World Group semifinal, Raonic continued to hit new pinnacles this year.
After reaching the fourth round at the Australian Open, where he fell to Roger Federer, the 22-year-old headed to Vancouver for Canada’s first-round Davis Cup tie versus Spain. There, he helped begin what would be an incredible run to the semifinals. Taking care of his two matches, Raonic defeated Albert Ramos on day one to give Canada the 1-0 lead, and then clinched the tie with a straight-sets victory over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez on the final day.
Next was San Jose, the home of Raonic’s first-ever ATP World Tour title in 2011. Raonic continued to exert his dominance at the indoor hard court event in what was its final year of operation, capturing his third straight title in the Californian city and fourth overall ATP crown. Defeating Tommy Haas in the final, Raonic never lost a set in San Jose through all his three years of participation, and in 2013 he faced just one total break point.
Raonic then reached the fourth round at Indian Wells and third round at Miami before turning a focus back to Davis Cup. Facing the Italians in the quarter-finals, Raonic won both his singles matches against talented opponents. Ousting Fabio Fognini on the opening day of the tie to ensure Canada was even at 1-1 going into the doubles rubber, Raonic also earned the clinching triumph once again with a victory over world No. 18 Andreas Seppi in the fourth match. Putting together a 4-0 record through the first two ties, Raonic helped seal his country’s first-ever appearance in the World Group semifinals.
The clay and grass season was highlighted by a semifinal finish at Barcelona, before his season really flipped full fledge back home in Canada at Rogers Cup presented by National Bank in Montreal.
A year earlier, Raonic had played in his first Masters 1000 quarter-final at Rogers Cup in Toronto.
Now he would take it a few steps further. Defeating Jeremy Chardy and Mikhail Youzhny in the first two rounds, he then ousted 2009 US Open champion and world No. 7 Juan Martin Del Potro in the third round. After eliminating surprise quarter-finalist Ernests Gulbis, he faced Davis Cup teammate Vasek Pospisil in a thrilling semi-final battle.
Raonic came out on top in a third-set tiebreaker to reach the championship match – the first Canadian to do so at Canada’s biggest tennis tournament since 1958.
Though he ultimately fell to Rafael Nadal – now a three-time Rogers Cup champion – Raonic’s impressive display through the week encouraged more people to take notice of his continuing rise.
Because of his runner-up performance in Montreal, Raonic climbed to No. 10 on the ATP World Tour rankings, becoming the first male Canadian to hit the elite Top 10 and be classified as one of the 10 best tennis players in the world.
At the US Open, Raonic tied his career-best Slam performance by reaching the round of 16. Narrowly losing to world No. 9 Richard Gasquet after holding a match point, he was just stopped short of his first major quarter-final.
Their five-set duel, which lasted for nearly five hours, was singled out by Sports Illustrated as one of the best men’s matches of the year.
A strong fall season followed. At Davis Cup in Belgrade, Raonic won a nail biting five-setter over Janko Tipsarevic before feeling his first defeat of the 2013 event with a loss to then-world No. 1 Novak Djokovic.
From there, Raonic didn’t drop a set en route to his fifth ATP crown at Bangkok, where he pocketed triumphs over two Top 10 players – Gasquet and Tomas Berdych. The following week, he made it into his second consecutive Tokyo final, where lost to Del Potro.
Thanks to his history-making season, Raonic was named Sportsnet’s Canadian Athlete of the Year and was one of the finalists for the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s best athlete of the year.
Turning 23 years of age on December 27 and being the first player born in the ‘90s to reach Top 10, Raonic is the leading member of the young generation of players on the ATP World Tour.
And with many years still ahead of him, there are certainly much more accolades and achievements to look forward to from him in the future.
Visit the video that Tennis Canada made up. http://video.tenniscanada.com/video/83/let-s-make-tennis-matter-for-kids-psa-2
Looking forward to covering the Van Open at Hollyburn Country Club this summer.
Thanks to Tennis Canada for the info.
