Raonic

Oh, GP, sorry, I didn't know you were doing a Raonic story, I just did one as well

@ gp

-can serve like Karlovic. Actually, Raonic has more variation.
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I would still rate Karlovic's serve better, even Isner's is better. But Raonic scores ahead on basis that he can follow up that big serve far much better than these 2 guys.

-can rally safe yet aggressive like Djoko. He brings a lot back and has a very dangerous counter punch.
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Djo is much ahead imo. First he has to come close to Ferrer in rallying, then maybe he can think of getting close to Djo. I agree that he has improved his rallying much better than last year or even the beginning of this year. But as the rally goes longer, I expect him to lose it more than a lot of other opponents.

-can handle low balls, high bouncing balls and fast balls
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He is definitely on the right path. I'm impressed but not so much. He is best among the current crop of young players and is improving fast.

His problems:

1. Return game: this is weak atm. Though he can stretch and put a lot of balls in play, he still doesn't make many good returns. He struggles against very half decent servers like Ferrer.

2. Lacking some weapons: he doesn't have a disguised drop shot. He hits hard and well but not having a drop shot and disguise is a problem when facing bigger opponents who have greater arsenal. I see Berdy staying close to being a real threat, yet not getting there because he misses this one.

3. Volleying. ATM he doesn't come much to the net, but what ever he does, I think there needs lots of work in that area. He doesn't lay with soft hands and those can be tricky.

4. Shot selection: This is a major area to be worked upon.

5. handling slices: though he can handle those, but its prone to make an error especially if its done continuously.

Yes, Raonic is the new complete package whose solutions to defeat him will come from either the new generation or at worst his injuries. No Nadal or Djoko will be stopping him in a year or 2. He is the typical case of newer players finding the solution to current ones, like McEnroe was to Borg, Federer to Pete and more recently Nadal to Federer. Not much to do with mental fatigue SB .

You may remember how on V2 I was putting in perspective our "greatest" era (put fwrd so many times by Socal) cause I knew what was the weakness of Nadal, Djoko and Murray. They simply have no big weapons besides their stamina and court coverage. And we cannot ask Federer, a player who grew up playing with a 85sq in bat with natural string, tuning his game and reflexes versus the likes of Goran, Hewitt and Kraji to also compete fairly with a full fledged Raonic who got himslef trained to beat the likes of Nadal, DJoko and Federer with modern equipment and diet.

Those who saw the Murray Raonic match in Barca just 2 weeks ago can clearly see that Rao will have little problem dispatching the top 4 players in the next few months. Murray played actually pretty well but he simply had no weapon to hurt Rao and I don;t envisage Djoko and Nadal to have much more.

If anything in my view Federer has more chance than teh other 3 cause he has that ability to return close to the baseline and with a bit of luck can string 3 good returns in a row in the same way he defeated the great SVers of the past.

I am not a fan of Raonic as again I don;t find sparks in his game but it's great to see at last an attacking game with the potential to win big. It was seriously lacking since Fed's peak time.

You're right Raiders, but i was relatively speaking, that's why i said; potentially we have...

As for his serve, the fact that he has such a strong 1-2 combination makes his serve look better than Karlo's, to me that is.

Shot selection improvement is indeed his biggest challenge

@gp
...but i was relatively speaking,
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I know that. He is very bright young player. He atm reminds me of how I expected Berdy to be a top player who can win slams when he rose to scene in 2004-05. Berdy reached a top player for sure and is consitent enough to stay at the top-10 for a long time, but he didn't move a few steps forward to win a GS. raonic is on right path, but has distances to cover.


Lets see..

From Rao:
"I felt like I was on top throughout the whole match," Raonic said. "I was there doing the right things and it was good. I will probably be more happy with the whole outcome in a few days but now is not the right time."

That's about right. Rao has better stats on all departments but manages to lose that match. That's really inexperience....and Federer doing the damage when needed like in that break at 5/6 second set.

For those watching Dolgo v Tsonga...it's clear that Dolgo might a good anti-Rao when both reach top form. Dolgo will have patches where he is going to be impossible to stop.

Raonic posseses what is necessary to posses to become a great player: that is aN out of the chart shot in his serve and a good all round game to back it up. His serve is very nearly as devastating as Ivanisevic's and Sampras'.