Milos Raonic: Going To Happen

Or in fact already happening, as the Canadian is up to 59 in the rankings after defeating Fernando Verdasco 76(6) 76(5) to take the San Jose title at the weekend.

I’ve got to confess I didn’t see this match. Well, I saw some of it – it started at 3 a.m. and I wanted right up until the point that Milos went something like 0-6 down in the first set tiebreak, at which point I assumed (with what I feel was some justification) that Verdasco would close out the tiebreak and use that boost to win in straights. How he didn’t, I’m not quite sure.

But he took it well.

But I’m assuming that Raonic carried on playing the way that he did for the first twelve games – mahoosive serving, confident aggression and a total lack of fear. The hype will now officially be out of control, given that he comes from a country with only slightly more top-flight players than Great Britain (and no Andy Murray), and while his talent is unquestioned, he’s been on a ridiculous run in 2011 and it remains to be seen what kind of consistency he has once that white-hot adrenaline has worn off. So the jury’s out – but it has plenty to deliberate upon.

Go Milos.