Milos Raonic – Canada Fan Blog an (unofficial) blog about tennis and Canadian player Milos Raonic

Raonic vs. Sugita Tonight

Milos Raonic will make his return to the ATP Tour tonight at the Rakuten Japan Open in Tokyo against Japanese wildcard Yuichi Sugita.

Raonic and Sugita are scheduled to take Centre Court at 12 Noon local time (Oct.4), which is 11PM ET (Oct.3) if I am not mistaken. This is probably the best time for most Canadians looking to watch the match, especially for fans on the West coast. However, it does not appear at this point that Sportsnet is covering the tournament in Tokyo. We will make an update if there are any changes regarding this, but in the meantime you should be able to stream the matches elsewhere online.

You know the site I'm talking about...

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Rakuten Japan Open Draw

Milos Raonic will face Japanese wild card Yuichi Sugita in the first round of the Rakuten Japan Open.

Raonic has never faced Sugita, who is currently ranked No.177 in the world. Looking at the draw, it's hard not to notice who may be waiting for Milos in the second round: Rafa Nadal. Coincidentally, Raonic lost to Nadal in the Round of 16 in Tokyo last year. You can watch highlights from the match as well as Rafa's post-match interview here.

As it turns out, Raonic has not been seeded for this tournament. Instead, the 8th seed has gone to Juan Monaco who surpassed Raonic in the rankings earlier in September. Monaco moved up to No.27 just as Milos' ranking fell off to No.30.

The first round gets underway in Tokyo at 12:00 noon local time (GMT +9:00) on Monday, October 3. So for me here in Newfoundland, I am 11h30m behind Japan Standard Time. Which means I will either have to stay up really late for get up extremely early to watch Raonic play. The schedule of play isn't out for Monday yet, but I'm hoping he'll be first on court. It is not yet clear if Sportsnet will have TV or online coverage of the Rakuten Japan Open.

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Raonic off to Tokyo

It appears that all systems are 'go' for the tournament in Tokyo next week. Raonic tweeted that he is looking forward to his return to competitive play at the Rakuten Japan Open.

So are we, Milos. So are we.

Raonic could potentially be seeded as high as No.8 if assuming there are no significant changes to the players list before the first round gets underway on Monday, October 3. Qualifying starts on Saturday, so it'll be a few days until we see the draw. Top players such as Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, David Ferrer, and Mardy Fish will join Milos in Tokyo. On a side note, I'm sure Rafa is glad to see that Novak Djokovic will not be on the opposite side of the draw so there is no chance of losing to him in another final.

I'm still trying to come to terms with how Novak saved match points against Federer only to go on and beat Nadal in the US Open final. It's a crazy, mixed -p world out there. Hopefully having Raonic back on your will restore some balance to the force.

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Raonic pulls out of Malaysian Open

Sportsnet has reported that Milos Raonic has withdrawn from the Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur. Raonic will be "out indefinitely."

It appears things are a little worse than they appeared after Raonic pulled out of Davis Cup and the following tournament in Metz. His return is being put off for at least another week, and there is no word as to what his schedule will look like for the rest of the season.

While the report states that "it was apparent that [Raonic's] hip was bothering him" during his Davis Cup loss to Weintraub, Raonic did not cite it specifically as an issue when he withdrew from further play. Regardless, there are a couple of big tournaments coming up in October, specifically in Tokyo and Shanghai (the latter being an ATP Masters 1000 event). Raonic is currently on the players list for Tokyo and would be seeded No.8 were he to play.

We eagerly await further news.

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Raonic Wtihdraws from Davis Cup / Metz

Milos Raonic has withdrawn from Davis Cup and next week's tournament in Metz, France. (source)

Raonic admits that he may have tried to come back from injury too soon. While he says his hip is fine, he is certainly feeling the effects of his tough 4-set match with Amir Weintraub on Friday. No doubt the food poisoning has prevented Raonic from making a smooth and manageable return. This is what Raonic has to say about how he feels on court:

"It's like all these little problems now seem so big. I get a little sick, and it seems to make such a big difference. I'm feeling a little slow out there, and suddenly it feels like I can't think the game as I play."

Pulling out of a the Davis Cup match is bad enough, but Raonic is delaying his return to the ATP tour for at least another week. He was entered into the upcoming tournament in Metz, but now Raonic feels that he is not ready to play.

Peter Polansky is now playing instead of Raonic, taking on Dudi Sela who lost the opening singles rubber of the tiebreak to Vasek Pospisil. Polansky is currently down a set to Sela. Pospisil will take on Amir Weintraub in the final rubber. Team Canada only needs to win one match today in order to advance.

Go Canada, go!

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Davis Cup on Sportsnet ONE

The Davis Cup World Group Playoff round between Canada and Israel starts this Friday, Sept.16. Sportsnet ONE will feature live coverage throughout the weekend beginning at 7AM ET on Friday.

Milos Raonic announced a few weeks ago via this tweet that he would make his return to competitive play at Davis Cup. The official team roster was revealed recently, with Vasek Pospisil, Peter Polansky, and Daniel Nestor traveling to Israel along with Raonic. The most well known player on Team Israel is Dudi Sela, who is ranked inside the Top 100 and recently lost in the 2nd Round of the US Open to semi-finalist Roger Federer. Sela was easily dismissed by Federer in straight sets.

In other news: http://samprasvsraonic.com/

Raonic Withdraws from US Open

According to this tweet, Milos Raonic has decided to pull out of the US Open and delay his return until Canada's Davis Cup World Group Playoff with Israel in September.

This is bittersweet news, as we were hopeful for a comeback at the US Open next week. However, Raonic says he is "feeling great" and that he is hard at work with his coaches preparing for Davis Cup. Milos was an integral part of the Canadian team that defeated Mexico in the first round of Group 1 player earlier this year, but was unable to travel with the team for the tiebreak against Ecuador.

Playing for Canada in Davis Cup will be a great way for Raonic to come back, even if it means the fans will have to wait a little longer for his return. If nothing else, it is good to have a definite outline for when Milos will be able to compete again. So in the coming weeks as we are watching the US Open and wishing Raonic was there lighting it up with his serve, we can at least look forward to his return in the very near future. Hopefully he will be able to finish strong this season and put an exclamation point on what has been a great year overall, despite the obvious setbacks.

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Milos Raonic to play Pete Sampras in November

Milos Raonic announces that he will play against Pete Sampras in an exhibition tennis match at the Air Canada Centre (ACC) in Toronto, ON - 17 November 2011

Milos Raonic wasn't able to play at the Rogers Cup in Montreal this year, but that didn't stop him from making news. During the broadcast on Rogers Sportsnet, Raonic announced that he will playing an exhibition match this Fall versus hall-of-famer and tennis legend Petros "Pete" Sampras at the Air Canada Centre (ACC) in Toronto.  He announced that the match with Pete Sampras is scheduled for November 17th of this year and that he was excited about the opportunity. The event has yet to be listed on the ACC website, and there is no word as to when tickets will go on sale.

While on his way to winning his first ATP tour title in San Jose, Raonic got to meet Sampras. The tennis legend gave the young upstart some advice on his game, later saying that Raonic is "the whole package". Needless to say, the exhibition match between these two will be a hot ticket in the fall.

As for when Raonic will make his return to competitive play after the Wimbledon injury, there is still no definite timeline. We are hopeful that Milos will be ready for the US Open, which is fast approaching. Despite the surgery, Raonic is optimistic about his return stating that he will be able "to reach another level" when he comes back.

Obviously, we are very eager to see that.

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Raonic: Surgery “sucked”

In this video, Milos Raonic reveals that having to undergo surgery on his hip "sucked". Because of the injury, we haven't been able to see Raonic play since Wimbledon. While there is no definite timeline for return yet, we have known for some time that Raonic will miss the upcoming Rogers Cup in Montreal. After that tournament, there is Cincinnati and then the US Open at the end of August. I don't think it is unreasonable to expect a comeback on the hardcourts in New York.