Defending champ Milos Raonic injured, says he’ll be ready in time for SAP Open

Written by: Staff on 13th February 2012

Defending champ Milos Raonic injured, says he'll be ready in time for SAP Open

Milos Raonic of Canada in action during his men's singles third round match against Lleyton Hewitt of Australia at the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 21 January 2012. EPA/MAST IRHAM |

Milos Raonic pulled out of Canada’s Davis Cup match against France on Sunday in Vancouver, British Columbia, because of a knee injury. But he remains intent on defending his SAP Open title this week at HP Pavilion.

Raonic’s agent told SAP Open organizers that his client will travel to San Jose, where he will be checked out by doctors. Raonic has withdrawn from Monday night’s doubles exhibition featuring John McEnroe, but because his first singles match isn’t until Wednesday night, Raonic feels he’ll be ready to go.

The attention paid to Raonic is a far cry from a year ago.

Little was known about Raonic when he came to San Jose last year, but 58 aces later, the lanky Canadian with a thunderbolt of a serve was the SAP Open champion and looked to be a rarity on the ATP Tour. In an era dominated by the relentless baseline power of Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, and the all-around brilliance of Roger Federer, Raonic is a throwback.

Like his idol, Pete Sampras, Raonic uses a blistering, accurate serve to fluster opponents. After losing to Raonic in last year’s SAP Open final, Fernando Verdasco said, “There must be another league for players like him.”

Verdasco wasn’t the only one to learn that lesson last season.

Raonic held serve 88 percent of the time in his first full season on tour and won 79 percent of his first-serve points, tied with Federer for the top percentage on tour.

But as he prepared to return to HP Pavilion,

Raonic stressed that he has plenty of work to do in order to continue his trek from curiosity to full-time contender.

“Obviously, return of serve is a big part of it,” Raonic, 21, said during a conference call last month. “Another part is going to be my mental aspect of my game.

“I feel that the mental aspect you can work on in practice, but the chances you have to improve on it the most come through match experience.”

As he left San Jose last year, Raonic was intent on getting those experiences and improving his on-court maturity. But a hip injury at Wimbledon derailed his plans, and surgery sidelined Raonic for nearly three months.

The injury robbed Raonic of an opportunity to play at the U.S. Open on hard courts that his serve is tailor-made for, but it didn’t have an effect on his signature weapon.

En route to winning the Chennai Open in January, his second career title, Raonic won all 48 of his service games. He was the first player to win a tournament without dropping serve since Federer did so in 2008.

Raonic, ranked 29th in the world, will be replaced in the doubles exhibition by reigning NCAA singles champion Steve Johnson, who will play with Gael Monfils. Jack Sock, originally scheduled to play with Monfils, will now play with McEnroe.

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