Raonic might win a ATP title soon and could be a threat for seeded players in the early rounds of Wimbledon or maybe even upto the Quarters. But not beyond. In another two years, however, if he lives up to his promise, he could be a slam contender.

vij: haven't seen him play, but isn't he just a big man with a huge serve? Please tell me there's more to his game!

I watched him play at the AO and he has a lot of serious tennis and a strong mind in addition to his size and his serve. He played great smart baseline and stayed cool all the time that I was watching. So lots of potential for sure to go far... but of course only time will tell if he can break through past quarters at slams etc.

this is in defence fo Rafa . What he said to Uncle Toni is private and no consern of any one.He was not disrepectful at all . He said this is what I am going to do. So his Spanish wording is his launage.Be happy he doesn't blurt out BAD words. Thank YouRambo

chlorostoma: cheers 4 that :) exciting times with all these younger players coming through!

Deuce, here's what Steve Tignor has to say about Raonic:
So it was with some surprise?and some surprise at my surprise?that I saw the spirit of Sampras rise again this afternoon in the blandest of places, Melbourne Park's Show Court 3, and in seemingly the most anonymous of players, 152nd-ranked Milos Raonic.

Here's the link: http://tennisworld.typepad.com/thewrap/page/3/
This page has many articles. Scroll down to : New School
Milos seems to be an exciting young player.

he lost to Simon Gruel (on a hard court) today

^^^^ too much tennis for young Milos. He came up through qualies in Melbourne

Young Milos was the ace leader at Melbourne with 94 aces followed by Roddick with 76 and Isner with 72. He was also the serve speed leader with 230km/hr followed by Isner with 227 and Roddick with 222. We can expect to hear more about Raonic this year.

vij, I agree. Future star.

WC into San Jose and Memphis

He must get bored of so many aces, let alone the opponent :)

He is not one dimensional like Isner. According to Steve Tignor, he is more like Sampras. I saw on TV his match with Ferrer and I feel this guy has potential.

Well Raonic did play against Rafa at Tokyo last year on a fast hard court. Of course we know Rafa beats him there. While he is not one dimensional, we can't deny that he relies a lot on his serves. Ferrer is one of the best returner of serves and he managed to return many of Raonic's serves. Maybe on a slow hard court, his serves are more returnable. I think it will be difficult to find another player able to serve like Sampras. Also, with surfaces being slowed down quite a bit these days, I don't think big serves are as non returnable as during Sampras time. I may be wrong though.

Raonic has a long way to go before he is anywhere near as good as Isner

Raonic is still so young to the tour, let's see how his consistency is at San Jose and Memphis (where he has been given Tommy Haas' wild card). That serve of his really is a mighty weapon and he can follow it up well ... but he is still working on fitness. Tennis Canada seems to be doing all the right things to help, though. They've hooked him up with a delightful Spanish coach.

Being Canadian, I am so excited about this up-and-coming young player. He's not afraid to go for shots and clutch serves. If he had played certain points well, he would have taken Ferrer to 5 sets. Imagine had he taken Ferrer, he would have taken Nadal thru injury and would have made it to the semis as a Qualifier!

Big weakness for him I think is his backhand...he needs to watch more porn and practice more backhands!

Hmm, sex mentioned in every post....a little unnecessary, must be a testosterone loaded teenager.....

jinga, Rafa had beaten Raonic at the Tokyo Open last year where the court conditions were much quicker and more suitable for Raonic's big serving. What are you dreaming about Raonic beating an injured Rafa? Shame if you hope for such thing to happen. You certainly like to talk about backhand issues don't you? Pls show some respect for both Rafa and Ferrer. I saw the match between Ferrer and Raonic; Ferrer was so good in returning Raonic's big serves that Raonic's game was rendered ineffective by Ferrer. You may want to build up your home hero but Raonic is clearly not there yet; he may be a force to be reckoned with in future but that will take time. He needs more experience and consistency, as it's not easy to do the week in week out grinding in the tours to maintain one's top ranking. I'm sure the likes of Tsonga, Monfils, Wawrinka, Cilic, Delpo and Simon would tell you so, for it's never easy keeping one's ranking in the top ten year in year out. That's why the top four, plus Roddick, Davy and Sod should ccommand our respect for being able to be up there in the top ten for so long. I wish to add Verdasco and Ferrer to the list too if they can keep their positions in the top ten this year.

Luckystar...
Just chill out and let's not take things so literally. You talk as if you are god's word on tennis which isn't what this board is about. Can't we make entertaining comments without being criticized about our accuracy? And for the record, Rafa pretty much gave iit to Ferrer; he pretty much limped through the 3 sets to show respect for his compadre (aka Andy Garcia). I agree that Milos needs to improve on consistency but I was merely pointing out that I'm just happy to see a top-100 ATP player at that age from Canada. We're known only to be a hockey country but hopefully this will pave the way to new talent.

so luckystar...stop being the ESPN commentator that you think you are and chill out; have some fun here. I think even Rafa would then your a "tight-a##".

jnga, what are you talking about? So you think its OK that all of us here have to bear with some crude words that you used? Learn to respect others here, most of us don't like crude words being used, and that has got nothing to do with chilling out or not!

Well you can be happy about your local hero, while I can comment on what I think about your local hero, anything wrong with that? Do show some respect for the no.1 player in the world, and I believe I have shown no disrespect for your local hero. In fact I'm impressed by Raonic, right from the Tokyo tournament. Rafa had some good words to say about him too and encouraged him to go to Spain for training.

Milos took out recent Chennai finalist Xavier Malisse of Belgium in easy straight sets yesterday. He faces James Blake next, the American easing his way back in after an injury-wrecked 2010 with a win over Jesse Levine. But Jesse is only ranked around #300, so this next match-up should provide an interesting test - for both players.