Raonic raring to go in Chennai

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Young Canadian Milos Raonic is raring to go at the season-opening Chennai Open tennis tournament that begins here at the SDAT Nungambakkam stadium on January 2. Raonic had a breakthrough year in 2011 as he rose from 156 to enter top-25.

Two weeks after bowing out of the Chennai Open qualifiers last season, Raonic became the first qualifier to reach the fourth round of a grand slam since 1999, at the Australian Open. “I am optimistic and looking forward to Chennai Open. I hope I can make more of an impact on the tournament than last year and start the year strong,” added the current world No.31

The 17th edition of the Chennai Open will see an impressive line-up of Indian and International players including world number nine Janko Tipsarevic and world number 10 Nicolas Almagro, defending champion Stanislas Wawrinka and former champion Xavier Malisse.

In 2011, Raonic became the first Canadian to win an ATP World Tour title in 16 years and he did not drop a set en route to the title and finished the week with a tournament-high 58 aces in four matches.

Elaborating further on his dramatic rise, Raonic said: “The progress has been amazing and fast. My tennis has improved so much and only keeps getting better. I know the more I play on tour the better I will get and the more experience I will pick up.

I hope to be a fixed stature in the top rankings in the world and to be aggressively competing for big tournaments with the top guys,” added Raonic who idolizes Pete Sampras.

Raonic said his high point of 2011 was winning his first title in San Jose at the SAP Open. “I would like to keep progressing my ranking. don't have anything set as far as a direct ranking is concerned. I want to keep improving, that's the most important part now. I know if I do it my ranking will follow,” he said.

Raonic credited his coach Galo Blanco for his meteoric rise. “He's been a great help. Being a former player himself, he's helped me deal with the pressures and moments very well because they are all new to me. It's one of the reasons I have been able to keep progressing so well this year.”

Canada qualified for the Davis Cup world group 2012 after a gap of seven years. “It's an amazing feat; hopefully we keep it up and keep winning. As well as making Canada a fixture into the world group,” he said.