Milos Marches Forward

"What has been the key to your improvement this season?" Milos Raonic was asked before he walked on court on Thursday night to face Gael Monfils.

“Playing on my own terms,” the poker-faced Canadian answered.

And what was his strategy against his flamboyant French opponent?

Raonic took half a second to ponder his response. Then he had it:

“Play on my own terms,” he said.

Never let it be said that Raonic, the leading candidate to be the next new men’s Grand Slam champion, was caught going off-message.

And never let it be said that he didn’t try his best to live up to his words. Raonic did play Monfils on his own terms, which could roughly be described as: Serve huge, hit a lot of forehands, make enough returns and move forward whenever possible. In the process, he kept the high-flying Monfils firmly grounded, the racquet essentially removed from his hand. With Raonic pressuring him at every turn—pounding down unreturnables, swinging his inside-out forehand wide, invading the forecourt at the slightest provocation—Monfils couldn’t have put on his customary circus act even if he had tried. Raonic came to the net 33 times, but it seemed like more. He may never be a natural volleyer, but at 6’5”, with an albatross-like wingspan, his presence at the net will be felt.

And that’s what Raonic wants his opponents to feel this year. Since his near-breakthrough run to the Australian Open semifinals in January, when he showed off a remarkably upgraded and newly nuanced attacking game—complete with touch volleys!—the tennis world has been wondering what’s gotten into Milos. All he can say is that he is, literally, pushing ahead.

“I’m just getting myself in there,” Raonic said on Tuesday after beating No. 6 seed Tomas Berdych in straight sets, “and just putting pressure on my opponents, I believe, and hoping that eventually it just sort of pays its dividends.”

This may be a simple concept, but it’s not as easy as it sounds for the modern-day player. It means leaving behind the baseline-hugging mindset that is by now so deeply ingrained in the game. From two-handed backhands to Western-grip forehands, today’s strokes and technique virtually mandate that a player resides at the back of the court. For the ever-disciplined and methodical Raonic, pushing forward has been a step-by-step process, an accumulation of details that begins at the baseline and eventually ends with him hitting a winning volley.

“It’s a mental thing, understanding, moving forward,” Raonic said this week when asked what was better about his game this season. “I’m pretty efficient at the net now. I cover the angles I’m supposed to cover. I make the volleys I’m supposed to make ... I do more different things. I make a lot more returns. I move better on the returns, so even if I don’t make it, I get my racquet on it at least.”

It really does, as Raonic says, all start with the return these days. Just ask Novak Djokovic. And Andy Murray. The world’s top two players don’t have the best serves in tennis, but they do have two of the best, if not the best, returns. Raonic has improved his this season by changing his preparation. Gone is the pre-swing hop; now he stays on the ground, which allows him to move a little more quickly to his right or left. Getting more returns back is another form of pressure, and it’s something that Monfils mostly failed to do on Thursday.

Can Raonic, at 25, after seven years on tour, change his game in a significant way? Can he discipline himself into a Grand Slam title? That’s his first goal, and while he’s ranked just 14th at the moment, his Aussie Open performance would lead to believe that his chances are better than they’ve ever been. Raonic beat Stan Wawrinka in the fourth round there, and had a two-set-to-one lead over Murray in the semis before he injured an adductor muscle. After Djokovic, he may have been the second-best player in the tournament.

“I think I’m playing much better than I ever have before,” Raonic told TENNIS.com this week. “I’m moving much better, and I’m using my game much better ... I don’t think I hit many volleys behind the service line anymore, which I would sometimes get stuck behind. All of these little things just compound, and they make a big difference.”

But as has often been the case with Raonic, the step forward in Melbourne was followed by a step back: That adductor injury kept him out until Indian Wells. The bigger question is how far his incremental improvements can take him. While he came to the net 33 times against Monfils, he won just 19 of those points. Any time Monfils was able to keep a passing shot low, or any time Raonic was off balance at the net, he had trouble handling the volley.

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It’s difficult to excel in aspects of the sport where you aren’t naturally gifted. But it’s not impossible: Mats Wilander added elements to his game in the middle of his career and nearly won a calendar-year Grand Slam. It’s also difficult to turn yourself into a major champion for the first time at age 25. But that isn’t impossible anymore, either; Wawrinka won his first, in 2014, at 28.

Judging by comments he made this week, Raonic understands that the Big Four won’t monopolize the majors forever. Asked about the rise of 18-year-old Alexander Zverev, who nearly beat Rafael Nadal on Wednesday, Raonic turned the tables and asked his own question.

“I’d say for the last little while there hasn’t been that same kind of competitiveness from the younger guys [that Zverev is showing],” Raonic said. “But then the question is also from the other aspect. Are the [top players] the same way that they were a few years ago?”

The answer, Raonic implies, is no, the top guys aren’t quite what they used to be. And as time goes on and they continue to be less like they used to be, Raonic will be there, patiently bombing in serves, working on his returns and his net game, waiting for his chance. What else can he do? Raonic knows the terms, and as he likes to say, he's going to play on them.