September 12, 2011
Sampras serves up some praise for young Raonic
By Joseph Hall
Milos Raonic fills out his size 14 shoes snugly when he rushes the net in the scorched wake of his 150 m.p.h. serve.
But can he follow in the footsteps of his boyhood idol and fellow big man Pete Sampras, to the score of major championships and a record 286 weeks at the top of the men's tennis rankings?
Absolutely, says Sampras, surely the game's most dominant serve-and-volley artist of all time.
"He's got all the tools," says Sampras, who at 40 will take on his 20-year-old acolyte in an exhibition match Nov. 17 at the Air Canada Centre.
"I love the way he plays. He serves big, he's willing to come in, he's good from the backcourt," says Sampras, who retired from the ATP Tour in 2002.
Indeed, all that's needed for Raonic to elevate his game into prime Sampras territory is continued high-level competition, he says.
"All he needs is experience, all he needs is to be out there in those situations, playing the top guys," Sampras says.
"He really has the game to make a lot of noise in a grand slam and break into the top 30, 20 and beyond. But you can't beat experience."
For his part, Raonic is happy to take any advice he can from Sampras, especially his calls to attack the net more often.
"Coming to the net and finishing more points at the net is something I'm currently working on and trying to improve," says Raonic, who more often roams the baseline.
Raonic says he's completely recovered from a surgery-worthy hip injury he suffered in June during a freak fall at Wimbledon that kept him out of the U.S. Open. He'll make his return in a Davis Cup match against an Israeli opponent Friday.
But hewing to another Sampras suggestion, Raonic will now keep to a better stretching and physical therapy routine than he has in the past.
"I didn't used to take care of that stuff before as much as I should have, but now I am taking care of it and I think it's helping me a lot," says Raonic, who will have a Spanish therapist travel with him full-time.
Both big men with big, big serves, Sampras and Raonic each promise a bomb fest for their ACC Face-Off match, which will represent the first professional tennis game ever played at the hockey and hoops arena.
And it's his own serve that makes Sampras somewhat confident he won't be embarrassed during the game, where he'll face an ascendant opponent a decade after most tennis players have hung up their professional rackets.
"The biggest thing is my serve, I can still serve pretty well and serve-and-volley and be able to hold serve," Sampras says. "That's a nice bonus, to have that weapon."
It was Raonic's stated admiration for Sampras that gave rise to the match to begin with.
"He's always looked up to me and we decided to see what would happen if we played," Sampras says.
"It's tricky. We wanted to make sure it's competitive and the last thing I want to do is be embarrassed out there. But I think it will just be fun for he and I to be on the court together."
Still, this lion in late, late winter says his days of playing men half his age are likely near their end.
"Playing the current guys is getting more difficult and I'm not sure how much longer I can do that," says Sampras.
And he won't get a free pass from Raonic on the ACC's hard court surface, despite holding his "hero" status.
"I want to show him what I can do," says Raonic, who reached as high as 25th in the ATP rankings in his first full year of competition.
"I'm going to play full out and he's going to do the same to me."
Sampras says there are many similarities between his game and the one Raonic plays, and that it can still be successful in this age of line-to-line athleticism.
But in a sport where decorum and even human decency can be haughtily cast off the court, it's also Sampras's gentlemanly approach that Raonic is trying to emulate.
"I look up to many things he's done and not just his serve but also his demeanour," Raonic says. "It's hard for me to be as mellow on court as he was.
"But when it comes to managing frustration and managing the nerves, I look at a lot of things he did."