Milos Raonic is looking forward to collaborating with John McEnroe, saying that the tennis legend can help him with his net play on grass and on other surfaces. They plan to work together leading up to Wimbledon, where Raonic has reached the semifinals.
"It's a great honor, you know,” he told reporters at the French Open. “There's a lot I want to achieve.”
Adding McEnroe as a consultant brings the Raonic coaching count to three, with the 25-year-old Canadian also working with Carlos Moya and Riccardo Piatti. But the world No. 9 does not see any problems in having so many viewpoints, saying it is up to him to pick and choose what works.
"I'm the CEO of the Milos Raonic Tennis,” he said. “That's it ... It is my job personally, [for] everything I hear, to weigh what it's worth and weigh what is best for me ... I take everybody's consultations very personally. I know everybody I have around me wants to help me to the fullest ... I'm going to try to do everything I can to sort of maximize giving myself the opportunity to achieve my goals."
Raonic said he anticipated plenty of "quality advice" from his newest coach. McEnroe, a seven-time Grand Slam champion, is considered one of the most skillful volleyers of all time, and also among the game’s most opinionated commentators.
The pair has indicated that the commitment is currently only for the grass-court season, with Raonic noting that the timing was deliberate.
"I was sort of just looking for another set of eyes to be a bit more efficient on grass," he said.
He did, however, insist that his goal is broader than that.
"It's about generally improving,” he said. “I want to improve coming forward, and I want to improve putting more pressure on my opponents. I was a lot more efficient at the beginning of the year coming forward, and it’s something that I would like to put a lot of attention to ... And it just works with grass. That's probably the thing that's going to benefit me the most.
"Now there is going to be the three weeks leading into Wimbledon that we are going to work, and put some attention to that.”
Raonic is scheduled to play the Aegon Championships in London in mid-June. That tournament is played on grass.