Milos Raonic: Will He Ever Take the Next Step?

Milos Raonic is a great tennis player. He has used his cannon serve and monster forehand to climb up to No.6 in the ATP Rankings. But as evidenced today by a 6-7, 6-7 loss to Stan Wawrinka, Raonic still does not have the tools to step into the group of tennis players in the top tier.

Today in the ATP Rotterdam semifinals, Raonic faced world No.9 Stan Wawrinka. Wawrinka is not a member of the elite Big Four of tennis, but he is in the next level of stars that consistently reach the end of tournaments and sometimes can beat the Big Four en route to a title. Although ranked higher, Raonic is hoping to gain the status of players like Wawrinka, Tomas Berdych, or Kei Nishikori, who are considered the biggest threats to the dominance of the Big Four.

Raonic has what is probably the best serve in the game. It is big and fast and he can place it anywhere in the service box.

Unfortunately for Raonic, today’s match was a demonstration of why the big Canadian is not yet at that level. Raonic has what is probably the best serve in the game. It is big and fast and he can place it anywhere in the service box. He is rarely broken, but his serve is his only major weapon. Raonic has decent net play and sometimes cracks a big forehand winner, but his backhand is mediocre and his movement well below average. His return game leaves much to be desired. These factors make Raonic’s margin for error razor thin.

Raonic has made his way up the rankings by not being upset by lesser players. His big serve game is just too intimidating for some players, as seen in the chart below.

ATP Rank	Player	Raonic Record
13	Ernests Gulbis	4-0
17	Tommy Robredo	2-0
19	Gilles Simon	3-0
26	Fabio Fognini	2-0

When Raonic faces top level players even outside of the Big Four, his lack of a return game is more evident. The players do not get flustered and are content to win tiebreaks or wait for that single opportunity against the big serve.

ATP Rank	Player	Raonic Record
5	Kei Nishikori	2-4
9	Stan Wawrinka	0-4
10	David Ferrer	0-4
11	Grigor Dimitrov	1-2

The other knock on Raonic’s game may come from the casual or even avid tennis fan. A Raonic game is just not fun to watch. His big serve causes many aces or unreturnables. His poor return game does the same. When a rally does get started, Raonic is so aware of his mediocre ground game that he goes for broke much too early in the point. It is very rare to see a point in a Raonic match go over eight shots. This causes boredom for fans who may otherwise back a Canadian tennis star.

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