There was a time in the not-too-distant past that anything short of a run to the second week of Wimbledon would have felt like a failure to Milos Raonic.
A semi-finalist in 2014, the Canadian reached the final in 2016, the quarter-finals in ’17 and ‘18 and the fourth round in his most recent appearance in 2019.
But after nearly two years away from the sport following a succession of injuries – most notably to his Achilles – Raonic isn’t sure what would constitute a passing grade at this year’s event. Traditional benchmarks don’t seem to apply.
“I think it’s going to be an emotional thing that I go through. I don’t think it’s possible to have an idea,” Raonic said. “I could win my first match, I could lose my first match and I could walk away in both cases happy or upset. So I’m not exactly too sure [what success would be].
“What I used to measure things last time I was here was quite different than how I would measure things now.”
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Last month the 32-year-old won his return match in ‘s-Hertogenbosch against Miomir Kecmanovic, admitting after the match that there were times during the past two years that he thought he would not make it back. He said at the time: “There were moments when I said, ‘I’m done’. At the end of 2021, I had no intention to play again, [I thought] ‘I’m going to figure out my life’, shortly after I got married.”
Despite his return to Wimbledon, this is a far from a full-throated ‘I’m back baby!’ story. After leaving ‘s-Hertogenbosch with shoulder soreness following a second-round defeat to Australian Jordan Thompson, Raonic’s goals remain short-term.
“Right now. I’m coming back to play here,” he said Sunday at Wimbledon. “One more time coming back especially to play Toronto, and I’ve come back for the US Open as well. And then I have to have a conversation with myself.”
Raonic says that he enters Wimbledon happy with his right shoulder, which throughout his career has fired 8,160 aces (ninth best all-time according to Infosys ATP Stats), but he will be mindful of his recent experience at the ATP 250 in The Netherlands.
“I played the first match, everything was kind of feeling okay. It wasn’t so much the prep, but a lot of it was tension and nerves,” he said. “I’ve played a lot of times where I’ve been out for three, four months, even, I think six months, one time. But this time it was two years. And for the first year and two months, I didn’t hit a single ball. So I think those kinds of things take a bit of a toll.
“No matter how much you prepare and practise, some things you can’t really replicate, like the tension of a match and how badly you want to win.”
Raonic, who boasts a 27-9 record at Wimbledon, plays his opening match Tuesday against World No. 159 Dennis Novak.
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