by: Charles Blouin-Gascon
TORONTO–It was a memorable homecoming for Canadian Milos Raonic, who played an exhibition match against former pro Pete Sampras on Nov. 17, 2011, at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto in front of about 5,000 people.
Raonic, 20, won the match 7-6 (4), 6-1, but the final result didn’t matter. This SAP and Lagardère Unlimited event had been dubbed “The Face-Off: Sampras VS Raonic–Hero and Prodigy” and aimed to increase the visibility of tennis in Canada. The rising ATP star was playing in Canada for the first time in over a year and for at least one November night, tennis had centre stage to itself in Toronto.
For Raonic, this was a chance to play against the player he grew up idolizing and he loved it. “It’s an amazing experience for me,” he said. “It’s still going to take a few days to settle in, but I would like to thank him for being my idol.”
The first set was tightly contested, which speaks to the quality of Sampras’s play. Indeed, the 14-time Grand Slam winner quickly erased doubt as to whether he could compete with the No. 31-ranked player in the ATP World Tour rankings. Sampras hit his first serve with the effortless motion most remembered from his 15-year playing career. He won the point, the radar gun read 192 km/h and just like that, the stage was set.
Entering the 2011 season, Raonic was ranked No. 156 but quickly rose through the rankings as he enjoyed a breakthrough season, going as high as No. 25. If not for a thigh injury sustained in the second round of Wimbledon, a great season could have been even better.
Sampras has a dangerous serve, like Raonic. In the first set, both players traded service games, but Sampras couldn’t sustain his level of play in the second set as Raonic quickly broke his serve and jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Raonic broke Sampras’s serve again to go up 5-1 and finished the match on his serve with, fittingly, an ace.
The serve is Raonic’s biggest strength and Sampras praised him for it. “I have seen a lot of big serves in my day,” he said after the match, “but this kid’s serve is bigger than big.”
Sampras didn’t stop there and said that Raonic can “go as high as he wants to” in the ATP World Tour rankings. The first step is a strong beginning again to the 2012 season, where Raonic will look to defend a fourth-round place at the Australian Open, a final at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in Memphis and his title at the SAP Open in San Jose.
Charles Blouin-Gascon is a freelance journalist raised in French Montréal but based in Toronto. He is trying to turn his passion for sports into a career and runs his personal blog @amanmusthaveacode.com. This is his first story for TennisConnected.
