Start slow, finish big.
Or perhaps finish in style.
This has become the story of Milos Raonic’s season, one that began in January with an injury at the Australian Open and a Davis Cup meeting against Japanese ace Kei Nishikori that he had to miss. It will end with Raonic qualifying for the first time ever to the elite and prestigious ATP World Finals in London this month.
That one’s by invitation only. The best-of-the-best. Or, perhaps more accurately, the healthiest of the best-of-the-best.
The Maple Leaf Missile lost Sunday’s final at the Masters event against world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, of course, a level of ATP tournament he has yet to win, the level just below the Grand Slam gatherings. Raonic was probably still celebrating his victory from Friday over the great Roger Federer, a career achievement in and of itself.
However, a ticket to London is what Raonic has been eying all season, and when he beat Federer and David Ferrer fell to Nishikori on the same day, he clinched it.
“This year it was finals or bust,” said Raonic’s manager, Austin Nunn. “I think it’s fair to say the season would have been considered a failure if he hadn’t made it to London.”
Ever since he attended the ATP World Finals for the first time in 2011, not to play but to accept the Newcomer of the Year award, Raonic has been itching to qualify for this glitzy event. Last year, he was one of two alternates, which left him watching for a week without hitting a single shot.
Only the world’s top eight compete, and with Rafael Nadal out after season-ending appendix surgery, Raonic jumped in and grabbed a spot along with Djokovic, Federer, Aussie Open champ Stan Wawrinka, Andy Murray, U.S. Open winner Marin Cilic, Tomas Berdych and Nishikori.
To get there, Raonic beat Federer for the first time in seven tries, and then outdistanced Berdych Saturday when the Czech crumbled trying to hold serve at 5-6 in the third set and all but handed the match to the Canadian.
Those efforts in Paris came after three lousy showings in Shanghai, Moscow and Basel. After getting to a final against Nishikori in Tokyo, Raonic became sick, and losing to the likes of Juan Monaco, Ricardo Berankis and David Goffin seemed to leave him with an outside shot at the season-ending joust in England. He wasn’t even feeling 100 per cent when he arrived in France.
That’s what made the win over Federer so important; Raonic really needed it, and he had to overcome some significant issues to get it.
He’d won sets against the Swiss master in their earliest meetings back in 2012, but of late, Federer had owned him, including this year at Wimbledon in the semifinals and at Cincinnati in August.
Not on Friday. Raonic won the first set in a tiebreak, his speciality, then broke Federer’s serve with a scorching forehand return winner and then an angled backhand winner for only the second time in their seven head-to-head collisions and went on to win the match.
His reaction to the victory was decidedly muted, surprising even those in his own camp. Perhaps it was out of respect to Federer, or perhaps because Ferrer had not yet lost and London, his primary goal, was still in question.
Like Federer, Djokovic has beaten Raonic every time they’ve played, three times in all. However, all three contests have been on clay, last year at the Davis Cup semifinals in Belgrade and this year in Rome and at Roland Garros. Djokovic has won all nine sets between them, including two in tiebreaks, and we’ll see if an indoor hard court changes the dynamics.
After the Paris final, Raonic plans to fly back to his home in Monte Carlo for a brief rest and then a mini-training camp, then head to London to prepare for the round robin competition. Another Canadian, Daniel Nestor, will also be competing at the World Tour Finals in doubles with his partner, Nenad Zimonjic.
Again, it will be another indoor hard court, where Raonic is perhaps most lethal.
He dreamed of getting to London. Now he can dream even bigger.