Milos Raonic - Wiping the canvas clean

Montenegrin-born, Canadian-raised, and now a resident of Monte Carlo, Raonic has won seven career titles, amassed almost $9million in prize money and he spends his life traversing the globe, firing cannonballs for serves and flaunting a mean forehand, and much-talked about haircuts.

Sat on a terrace overlooking Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi’s perfect December weather, Raonic reflects on what it means to him to be a quarter of a century old.

“Twenty-five was a little bit hard to swallow to be honest. I wish I would turn 21 again,” Raonic tells Sport360 with a smile.

“I don’t know, I guess I’m always eagerly trying to achieve certain things, especially with my tennis, that time feels like it’s flying.

“Especially with how we deal with our yearly schedule, going to the same places constantly over and over again, the year tends to go by pretty quickly, especially when you’re so self-absorbed in the tennis world.”

As a young kid, did Raonic picture himself with a bunch of grand slam trophies to his name at the age of 25?

“I don’t think I did in that sense, I think it was probably more in a non-realistic dreamer sense as a little kid, that ‘this guy did this, I want to do more’,” he responds.

“I never played with the impression of time. I always really just looked at it ‘do the work and your time will come’. I tried to be as patient as I can with it.”

Patience is something Raonic needed plenty of in 2015.

He spent most of the year dealing with injuries, first a nerve problem in his foot that required surgery and forced him to miss the French Open, and more recently back spasms that ended his season prematurely.

In the off-season, Raonic played briefly in the IPTL before pulling out with more back woes.

Heading into a new year, the world No14 says he’s finally feeling fit again.

“I spent about six weeks training a lot, doing a lot of rehab so I’m healthier and fitter than I’ve ever been before. I’m very proud of that and also very excited to get going with the next year. It’s been nine months since I’ve played a healthy match so I’m happy to turn those tides around,” he says enthusiastically.

Playing a full season in 2016 is Raonic’s top priority as he hopes to avoid a repeat of the year that passed, which was challenging in more ways than one.

“You get so absorbed in trying to get healthy, you forget about all the other things.

“And then when you have a little bit of time to relax you realise like ‘oh, that did go by, I didn’t play as well as I would have hoped, I didn’t play many matches, I didn’t play healthy matches’,” he says.

“The main goal for 2016 is really to stay healthy, play 60 or 70 matches, as close to 100 per cent as can be, you have achieve that and your tennis will take care of the rest.”

Touchdown in #AbuDhabi at the #YasMarinaCircuit! @milosraonic @kevinanderson18 and @tsonga7 are ready for #MWTC2016! pic.twitter.com/UfgiL0bZii

— MWTC (@MubadalaTennis) December 29, 2015

Raonic starts the new season without Ivan Ljubicic in his corner as he parted ways with his Croatian coach of two-and-a-half years last month.

Ljubicic then joined the Roger Federer camp, as a replacement for Stefan Edberg while Riccardo Piatti went from consultant to full-time coach on team Raonic.

Asked if the split with Ljubicic affected his pre-season training, Raonic said: “It didn’t really affect it I would say because in offseasons when we were doing the training, it was Riccardo and Ivan together. It just continued with Riccardo.

“It’s been going great, and I feel like I’ve found some new things in my game, improved some things.”

Raonic says Ljubicic told him he was teaming up with Federer “ahead of time” and he wishes his ex-coach well.

“Me and Ivan, we’ve stayed friends, on close terms, and he very respectfully let me know of it. It’s good for him and I’m proud of him,” says Raonic.

“I think the thing Ivan had is understanding. There’s a difference between just playing tennis and playing tennis, understanding and having the instincts, knowing what you should do when, how you can manipulate situations for your own benefit and so forth.

“I think that’s what he gave me the best insight on. How to really try to turn events to help me as much as I can rather than be against me.” With many tipping Raonic to be the tour’s next first-time grand slam winner, does he believe he can be the one to consistently break the ‘Big Four’ mould?

“Yes, obviously. I feel that I can definitely do that, I have that within myself and hopefully 2016 has that answer for me.”

Raonic says his constant need to improve is what drives him the most and that the day he loses that urge would be a “sad day” for him.

“I think for me I can do much better in the important situations in big matches, just learning how to deal with myself, that’s the most important thing I could add to my game,” he admits.

With his booming serve being his strongest asset, the 196cm-tall Raonic has often been dubbed a one-trick pony. It’s a stereotype he does not pay much attention to, though.

“To be honest, the way I see it is if my opponents are talking about my serve, they’re very occupied with that and it gives me a little bit more freedom with everything else,” he explains.

“From the fan perspective, I worked hard on my game, I know what I’m capable of and I continue to learn how to use my game to my benefit as much as possible.

“Things will come, I’m not too drowned out by other people’s thoughts.”

One thing that has occupied his thoughts over the past two years is a burgeoning passion for art.

Raonic is fascinated by the quirkiness and personalities of artists from previous generations and he had set himself a task to acquire art pieces for his two-bedroom condo in downtown Toronto.

“Not only have I enjoyed it from the side of trying to acquire certain pieces but just things I try to enjoy when I’m in different cultures, even just from a viewing pleasure,” says Raonic of his interest in art.

“There’s so many amazing things to see, to learn, but it’s not just about seeing the art – you end up buying a book and reading about it. You find so many eccentric and interesting and very quirky personalities.

“People that at that time could have
either been very crazy to people and nowadays we look back and say ‘wow, they
really understood it, and were quite a bit ahead of their generation’.

“It’s interesting because there’s no formula to it, it’s their own personal process.”