As one of his country’s top players, Milos Raonic has high expectations of himself at this week’s Rogers Cup in Toronto.
At 29th in the world, Raonic enters the tournament as the second highest ranked Canadian player behind Denis Shapovalov. On Monday he kick-started his campaign in impressive fashion with a comprehensive 6-3, 6-4, win over tenth seed David Goffin. Firing 13 aces and winning 100% (27/27) of his first service points.
“I think the way I was aggressive from the baseline, I hit my forehand well.” Said Raonic, who hit 31 winners to 21 unforced errors. “It’s something we spent these last two weeks working on. I think I can still serve much better.’
“I don’t think I necessarily served particularly well, so I’ll take the time to work on some things.”
“But overall, it was a very good performance as a first performance here. And mentally I was in the right state of mind the whole way through, and I was very disciplined with myself.”
This year is Raonic’s ninth appearance in the main draw of the Rogers Cup. It was at the tournament where he made his debut on the ATP World Tour back in 2009. Losing in the first round to Fernando Gonzalez. Speaking about playing in Canada’s biggest tennis event, Raonic says he has come to terms with dealing with high expectations of his home fans. Describing it as a ‘fun pleasure.’
“ I think the first few times I sort of dealt with it in the sense of a pressure.” He explained.
“I think I have learned to enjoy it a lot more and just to embrace it. I think, really, being on the court is the most enjoyable aspect of it.”
On the same day the 27-year-old made a winning start to his campaign, two of his team mates suffered disappointment. Rising stars Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime joined forces to play in the doubles competition. The two starred in a mouthwatering clash against Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic and Kevin Anderson. Losing 6-3, 6-3, to the more experienced pair.
“I said to (Auger-Aliassime) before the match: ‘Let’s just have fun out there, enjoy ourselves, and we’ll see how the match goes,” sportsnet.ca quoted Shapovalov as saying.
Shapovalov and Auger-Aliassime will play their first round matches in singles on Tuesday against Jeremy Chardy and Lucas Pouille. Meanwhile, Raonic will face either Marco Cecchinato or Frances Tiafoe last this week in the second round.