Milos Raonic? What is the big deal?

Everybody is raving about Milos Raonic lately.  For those of you unfamiliar with him he's the 20 year old from Canada via Yugoslavia.  He has been creating a buzz on tour this year for his big serve and what many perceive as tremendous upside.  Everybody from John McEnroe, and Martina Navratilova to Brad Gilbert and tennis writer Matt Cronin have been hanging from this kid's nuts saying how he is the next big thing and being ballsy enough to compare him to Pete Sampras.

I guess I just don't see it....yet.

Milos started his 2011 season trying to qualify for the ATP event in Chennai, India.  He didn't have the "goods" to get through qualifying and wasn't able to participate in the main draw.

Next came the 1st major of the season the Australian Open.  Raonic had a pretty good run in only his 2nd career major (lost in 1R of 2010 U.S. Open) making it to the 4th round.  He had quality wins over Bjorn Phau, Michael Llodra, and upset the 10th seeded Mikhail Youzhny, before losing to David Ferrer in the 4th round.  In the match against Ferrer, Raonic looked real good in the 1st set and won that set by keeping Ferrer off balance with his huge serve and solid net game.  Then the wheels came off for the young Canadian.  Ferrer who is one of the better return-of-servers in the game figured out the serve and made Raonic try to match him from the baseline and that was toxic to his chances of survival.  Ferrer took the next 3 sets easily, and his 2011 Australian Open run was dead.  But the buzz of this kid was just starting to begin.  ESPN's coverage had him sitting at their desk with Brad Gilbert drooling all over this kids potential.

This week is when Raonic hit an all time high.  He won the SAP Open in San Jose this past weekend.  His first ever ATP tournament win.  He had some nice wins in San Jose:  beating former roided out vet Xavier Malisse, "the fork" James Blake, fellow up-and-comer Richard Berankis, advanced to the final with a walkover victory over Gael Monfils who pulled out of the event with a wrist injury that will keep him sidelined for possibly the next couple months, and won the title with a 7-6, 7-6 win over Fernando Verdasco.

The "tennis world" now has a "boner" for Milos Raonic.

I'm not ready to crown this kid yet.  Sure its a possibility he could be a top 5 or top 10 player, but he has a lot to work on.  Currently he's at his all-time high of #59 in the world.  At 20 years old that is excellent and definetly could make a run at top 30 by the end of the year.  BUT I've seen this hype before.  Just a year and a half ago I heard how Melanie Oudin is going to be the American version of Justine Henin.  Currently Oudin is struggling to stay in the top 75 and is barely making it out of the 1st round of smaller WTA events.  Like Oudin, Raonic is going to get figured out by the competition.  The kid has a monster serve and that will keep him in matches against mid-level players, but when he starts facing top 20 guys he is going to have to do more than rely on aces to win matches.  In the Ferrer match his backhand was atrocious.  He didn't have the mental game to come to net, when it was working.  On court strategy especially in multi-set Grand Slams will be a weakness, but he's only 20 I keep telling myself.

I'm not sold yet.  American media loves to crown everyone as the next (put name in here).  I've been told by "experts" that Sam Querrey will be a top 10 player.  The guy is 1-8 in his last 9 matches.  And John Isner is going to be "special".  Well if being "special" is having a big serve, below average ground strokes, terrible return of serve, well then I guess Ivo Karlovic is "really special".

Raonic is in Memphis this week for the ATP 500 event.  In his first round he gets a rematch with Fernando Verdasco.  Lets see if he can mix his game up against a top 10 player who has seen him before.  Now that the world is on notice, lets see how he does when he won't sneak up on someone who isn't expecting anything.

You're on the radar now, Milos Raonic.  Time to step your game up and show the world if you are the next Pete Sampras or the next Ivo Karlovic.