On Tuesday in Malaga on the Davis Cup, Staff Canada offered by Sobeys ran out of gasoline.
Successful back-to-back titles is tough in any sport. It’s loads of matches and wears down the physique. After their defeat to Finland in the quarter-finals, the Canadian squad revealed that virtually each member of the crew was coping with some kind of harm, which in the end put an finish to their title defence.
Nobody understands accidents on the Canadian crew, possibly in all of tennis, higher than Milos Raonic.
The veteran was making his first Davis Cup look since 2018 after accidents stored him out of the 2019 Finals after which utterly sidelined him from late 2020 till the summer season of 2022.
However you by no means would have recognized it watching the Missile play on Tuesday.
If there was one simple optimistic to remove from Canada’s brief stint in Malaga, it was the sensible efficiency of Raonic within the opening singles match.
Returning With an Ace(s)
It was a traditional Raonic pounding the place he dropped 18 aces and misplaced a mere three factors on serve (considered one of which was a double fault) in the straight-set win.
His opponent, Patrick Kaukovalta, was utterly at a loss for methods to deal with the Raonic serve.
“I’ve positively by no means performed in opposition to anybody with that type of serve. I had no learn for it at any level of the match,” defined Kaukovalta. “I used to be struggling to essentially get a grip on it. Even the second serves was very robust to learn. I attempted some various things, but it surely appeared that each time I attempted one thing new, then he switched it up rapidly. Made my returns very tough.”
Proper from the beginning, when Raonic opened the match with 4 straight aces (5 for those who embody his second service recreation), one on his second serve, any potential doubts about his kind had been silenced. And all of the stress was instantly placed on Kaukovalta, as everybody within the stadium knew {that a} single slip-up by the Finn on serve meant a set for Raonic.
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That’s precisely what occurred, as the person from Thornhill broke late in every set earlier than simply serving it out.
When requested for the key to his deadly serve, the Canadian had a easy clarification: “Hit it laborious and hit it near the road.”
Raonic Continues Davis Cup Journey
Returning to Staff Canada was an enormous deal for each the person and the nationwide crew who he helped raise to prominence over the past decade plus.
“It’s a fantastic feeling, particularly contemplating the success that each the groups, males’s and girls’s, have had these final 12 months,” mentioned Raonic after his win. “To be right here alongside these guys, contributing and making an attempt to only take pleasure in it, you admire these moments much more as soon as there’s not as lots of them.”
For Raonic, attending to play at these Finals is the fruits of an extended journey. He made his debut for Staff Canada in 2010 once they had been nonetheless caught within the Americas zone, though his historical past with the nationwide crew goes again even additional.
Learn additionally: Raonic Overcomes Adversity to Make Winning Return in Toronto
“It’s been loads of satisfaction and loads of nice emotions coming from it, simply because I keep in mind from the primary time that I used to be there as a hitting companion alongside the crew in Calgary in opposition to Colombia in 2007. We had been enjoying to remain in America’s Group I. Then in 2011 we had the prospect to get into the World Group after first time in a very long time. There was a complete lot of progress over time with it, and we’ve got been a staple now within the World Group’s stage. We now have been now on the high of it.”
When the modifications to the Davis Cup format was adopted in 2018, Raonic expressed help for the change. However he by no means bought the prospect to play within the Finals till 2023.
The panorama of Canadian tennis in 2007, when Raonic first had a task of any sort with the nationwide crew, is sort of unrecognizable from the place it’s right this moment. And few individuals have performed an enormous a task in Canada’s development right into a championship-winning tennis nation than the person from Thornhill.
“Seeing all that, being part of all that, it’s one thing fairly unbelievable. I believe it simply speaks to much more as a result of it’s not the person achievements Canadians have additionally had. I believe it’s vital in regards to the course of and the programs which can be in place all through the nation that assist Canadian tennis gamers that need to obtain their objectives succeed.”
Whereas Raonic could not have been part of the squad that lastly lifted the Davis Cup trophy in 2022, there’s no doubt that he played as big a role as anyone in Canada attending to the highest of the tennis world. And whereas it’s unlucky he was not capable of get his palms on it in 2023, it’s becoming that he was capable of ship such a dominant efficiency for the reigning champions.
