Tough Draw for Milos in Madrid « Milos Raonic

4May/12Off

Tough Draw for Milos in Madrid

The draw is out for the Mutua Madrid Open and things aren't looking good for Milos. He has drawn up against David Nalbandian in the first round, and should he win he would face Roger Federer in the second. Those are the kinds of opponents you would hopefully see later in a tournament, not in the opening rounds. It will be tough for Raonic to keep the claymentum going against such tough players, but he's coming in with a lot of confidence after his semi-final result in Barcelona. Hopefully we'll see Milos make another statement on the clay.

After the performance in Barcelona, Raonic reached a career high singles ranking of No.23 in the world. This is after dropping the points he earned from reaching the semi-finals in Estoril last year.

Sportsnet ONE will have coverage of the Mutua Madrid Open starting on Monday, May 7 at 7 AM EST. It looks like they'll be reshowing matches on tape delay throughout the rest of the day, so we may able to see Raonic's match on TV. No doubt it'll be streaming online live somewhere, though.

Good luck in Madrid, Milos. You're gonna need it. But then again, who needs luck when you get to hit with the King Of Clay:

-multi

Posted by multiformous

Filed under: Uncategorized Comments Off

Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) ( subscribe to comments on this post )

Robert
May 6th, 2012 - 19:02

I thought some of Milos’ fans might be interested by Rusedski viewpoint on Milos :
“Raonic will be dangerous at Wimbledon – none of the top boys are going to want to see him on the grass at Wimbledon. I’ve been impressed with Raonic for a while. He’s the most exciting young player on the tour. You would have to go with him and John Isner as the players with the best two serves on tour. He’s hitting around 150mph on a regular basis. But you have to think about the second serves, and also results at the majors. I still haven’t seen him in a big match at the majors so don’t know enough about his second serve. That would be interesting to see.”

“What Raonic needs to do, if he wants to add to his game, is to come forward at times. He should be serve-and-volleying once in a while, just to mix things up. If Raonic comes in occasionally, that would have his opponent thinking, wondering what he is going to have to do with his return. If Raonic doesn’t come in on his serve, that takes some of the pressure off the returner, even though Raonic has such a gigantic serve.”

“I can see him getting to the quarters of Wimbledon this year. I’m not so sure about the semis as the top four guys move so well on the grass. He’s already had one operation, so it’s just a matter of that little bit of flexibility that’s missing from his game at the moment. He has such great ability, though. I can definitely see him getting to nine or 10 in the world, and then it would be interesting to see whether he could step up.”

The quote comes from : http://www.thetennisspace.com/on-court/the-most-dangerous-man-in-tennis/

I share his view that Milos should go more to the net, especially on grass, and could try serve and volley which he did once or twice in Barcelona. I am sure he is going to get increasingly better at the net !
- multiformous
  May 7th, 2012 - 09:31
  
  Working on making plays at the net should definitely be the next logical step. It’s a good point about the Top 4 moving so well on the grass, especially given the unfortunate spill Milos suffered last year at Wimbledon.
  
  There’s still a lot of room for improvement, and people who know tennis think the sky is the limit for Raonic. I’m inclined to agree.
TBird
May 5th, 2012 - 00:21

Milos already lost the points from Estoril last week; his ranking will not drop. The tournament must have been held a week earlier last year.
- multiformous
  May 5th, 2012 - 10:31
  
  You’re right, thanks for pointing that out. It looks like he dropped the points from Estoril on April 30. This is the same thing that happened earlier with tournaments like San Jose and Memphis. Thanks again for keeping me on my toes!
- Tomaso
  May 5th, 2012 - 14:04
  
  Half-correct: his points will not drop; but his ranking will, as Cilic (one below Milos, at #24, with 1400 points to Milos’ 1425) just made it to the finals at Munich, so will gain at least 150 points, maybe 250. Cilic will go up a few rankings; Milos will go down one, to 24. But not to worry: Milos has fewer points to drop over the next two months (in fact over the next five months!) than most other players, and he will have many opportunities to gain. With good play, and a little “luck of the draw” he’ll be top-20 by end of June, and continue to rise for the rest of the year.
  - Tomaso
    May 6th, 2012 - 16:56
    
    Help! ATP Rankings are out for May 7, and Milos is still at at #23, thanks to a rise from 1425 points to 1460, putting him past Florian Mayer at 1435 points. Can anyone tell me where those 35 mystery points came from?
    - multiformous
      May 7th, 2012 - 09:40
      
      I’m a little confused as well. Perhaps it has something to do with a tournament switching from countable to uncountable. I really don’t see it.
      - Tomaso
        May 7th, 2012 - 15:37
        
        Yes, I think that’s it, Chris. 2011 Madrid points were dropped, so anyone who did not play last week had to pick one tournament up: their previous “best non-countable” (aka tournament #19) moved up to “worst countable” (#18). In Milos’ case he dropped a 10, gained a 45: net 35 gain. It will be temporary, of course, when 2012 Madrid is added, those points will be bumped down to non-countable again. So (if I have this right) on the off-chance that Milos falls to Federer later this week, he’ll gain 45 points, but drop 45: net zero.
        …Most other players will be similarly affected; some more so, e.g.Cilic, Verdasco and Isner, who have 150 of these phantom points.
        …And I guess we’ll see the same thing happening with Rome, and other up-coming tournaments.
      - GG
        May 7th, 2012 - 22:31
        
        Yeah, they erased last year’s Madrid Open and replaced it with another result from a 500 or 250 tourney. After this week that tournament result will be replaced by their results in Madrid. What is exciting is that when last year’s Madrid and Rome tournaments are erased:
        
        17. F. Lopez (1,705 pts)
        18. A. Dolgolopov (1,545 pts)
        19. F. Verdasco (1,540 pts)
        20. M. Raonic (1,405 pts)
        21. R. Stepanek (1,340 pts)
        22. R. Gasquet (1,330 pts)
        23. S. Wawrinka (1,325 pts)
        
        So unless Milos performs under par in these two tournaments he should be well positioned in the French Open. He won’t have to face the top four until the Round of 16 at the earliest.
      - GG
        May 7th, 2012 - 22:39
        
        Sorry, I should have added: the points I posted are those that will count going into Paris. They do not include the phantom points Tomaso pointed to. So these points will be counted along with the player’s results in Madrid & Rome, plus possible results in the two tournaments the week before Paris (Düsseldorf & Nice).
      - Tomaso
        May 8th, 2012 - 00:28
        
        Thanks for the numbers, GG — put them on my scratch-pad. We’ll need to watch how many points those other players pick up between now and Roland Garros. But it does look as though “all” Milos has to do is to play on-par, and he’ll remain in that sweet-zone of 17-24 for both the French Open and Wimbledon. And if he can pull up an over-par performance or two, he’s within striking distance of the extra-sweet 9-16 zone, perhaps in time for the Olympics!
Robert
May 4th, 2012 - 17:46

I totally agree : it is a very tough draw for Milos. David Nalbandian is a very good clay player, with a great experience. He is only ranked 49, but that is because at 30 years of age he doesn’t play that much. He has been number 3 in 2006. He has 13 years experience on tour. He never surrenders.
The other side of the coin is that it is going to be a great experience for Milos. Also, Nalbandian doesn’t know Milos’ serve and may be astonished by how powerful Milos is. Besides, according to Nadal, Madrid smurf clay could adventage Milos ; I quote : “”some benefit players who are more powerful, who don’t have footwork so defined, players like [John] Isner, [Milos] Raonic, or [Roger] Federer—it’s a court that rewards the serve more than usual.” I don’t really understand his remark on footwork, but he seems to say big servers get an edge. Finally, nothing to lose for Milos !
So, all behind our young champ ! Wonder if he will wear yellow/white as usual, in Smurfs’ country ?!
- multiformous
  May 5th, 2012 - 10:40
  
  That’s a great quote from a guy who knows a thing or two about the clay. It’s pretty telling that he would mention Raonic in the same sentence as Federer and Isner — but I thought Federer had great footwork? I guess he’s just talking about Federer’s serve there.
  
  Here’s the article for anyone who hasn’t seen it:
  
  http://tennis.com/articles/templates/news.aspx?articleid=17515&zoneid=25