TORONTO — It’s been seven weeks since a hobbled Milos Raonic lost his opening Rogers Cup match to Adrian Mannarino, and five weeks since he had surgery to remove portions of bone from his left wrist.
This week, he was back in Canada briefly, making a few appearances for sponsors, and getting his wrist checked out by specialists. Assuming he is cleared, the plan is to fly to Tokyo to resume his ATP season.
“I’m looking to finish the year strong,” Raonic told Sportsnet at an Aviva event at the Leaside Tennis Club. “The injury was to my non-dominant arm so it didn’t slow me down too much. I’ve been hitting and I’ve been able to practice.”
In the short time Raonic missed with the injury, fellow Canadian Denis Shapovalov bursted onto the scene. Shapovalov’s ranking rose over 100 spots during the time Raonic was injured, and Raonic came away impressed with how the 18-year old handled the spotlight,
Raonic, from Thornhill, Ont., calls Shapovalov’s ability to perform in pressure situations a “special talent and skill that he’s lucky to have.”
“He went out on Arthur Ashe (US Open centre court) three times in a row, and I think it actually helped him play better and motivated him,” Raonic said. “He played fearlessly. He thrived in those situations that are not necessarily easy to thrive in.”
Watching Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., and the rest of the US Open field in New York was bittersweet for Raonic. While he enjoyed watching a fellow Canadian succeed, he said it was frustrating to see just how wide open the field was.
He pointed out that none of the top five players in the ATP rankings at the end of 2016 (Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Raonic, Stan Wawrinka, Kei Nishikori) played in this year’s final Slam.
“To have that kind of an opportunity and not be there for it, that stung,” Raonic said.
“But I don’t think that’s an outlier. I think that’s going to be something that can occur many times in the upcoming years — those opportunities — and I think I need to step up and take them.”