Milos Raonic

Milos Raonic (Милош Раонић, ; born December 27, 1990) is a Canadian professional tennis player.

Raonic is the first player born in the 1990s to win an ATP Tour title, to be ranked in the top 10, and to qualify for the ATP Tour Finals (the latter of which he achieved in 2014).

Raonic is frequently described as having one of the best serves among his contemporaries.

Statistically, Raonic is one of the best servers in the Open Era, winning 91% of service games to rank third of all time.

Aided by his serve, he plays an all-court style with an emphasis on short points.

All his singles titles have been won on hardcourts.

His overall winning percentage of 68% is one of the highest among currently active players.

Raonic was born on December 27, 1990, in Titograd, SFR Yugoslavia (now Podgorica, Montenegro), and is of Serb heritage.

Prompted by the breakup of Yugoslavia and subsequent ethnic conflict, and seeking more professional opportunities, his family moved to Canada in 1994 when he was three, settling in Brampton, Ontario.

His parents are both engineers; his father, Dušan, holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, while his mother, Vesna, has degrees in mechanical and computer engineering, including a master's.

He has two older siblings: his sister, Jelena, is eleven years older, while his brother, Momir, is nine years older.

Raonic's uncle, Branimir Gvozdenović, is a politician in the Government of Montenegro, where he has served as Deputy Prime Minister.

Raonic is fluent in Serbian and English.

His first, brief introduction to tennis came at age six or seven with a week-long tennis camp at the Bramalea Tennis Club in Brampton, followed by weekly hour-long group sessions led by tennis coach Steve Gibson, who recognized his potential.

He moved to nearby Thornhill, Ontario soon after, and one or two years passed before he asked his parents if he could play again.

His father sought out coach Casey Curtis at the Blackmore Tennis Club in neighbouring Richmond Hill, Ontario.

Curtis was at first reluctant to take on Raonic, but was convinced after Raonic demonstrated his commitment by working with his father and a ball machine daily for two months.

Years later, Raonic said he chose tennis because of its "individuality and [because he] felt [he] could train more alone and on a ball machine with [his] dad".

Raonic and Curtis worked together "twice a day, almost every day, for the next nine years."

Provided that he complete his courses, Raonic was allowed to reduce his hours of attendance at Thornhill Elementary School so that he could practise more, which he did both before and after school.

His parents and siblings supported his tennis, taking turns driving him to practice and tournaments, but did not push him to it or interfere with coaching.

Rather, they emphasized school throughout, insisting that he maintain academic excellence as a prerequisite to playing tennis.

He attended Thornhill Secondary School, and accelerated his course load—achieving an 82 percent average—so that he could graduate a year early.

Raonic first competed at a junior event sanctioned by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) in October 2003 at the age of 12.

Two years later, in October 2005, he picked up his first singles match victory at age 14.

His first juniors titles in both singles and doubles came at the same Grade 4 tournament in October 2006.

Late in 2007, at the age of 16, Raonic moved to Montreal as one of the first group of players at Tennis Canada's new National Tennis Centre, thus marking the end of his formal relationship with Curtis.

Raonic's four favourite sports teams are FC Barcelona, the Toronto Blue Jays, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Toronto Raptors.

Raonic first gained widespread recognition by reaching the fourth round of the 2011 Australian Open as a qualifier, where he was said to be the future of professional tennis.

Coupled with his first ATP Tour title three weeks later, his world ranking rose from No. 152 to No. 37 in one month, and he was awarded the 2011 ATP Newcomer of the Year.

He worked for Rogers Sportsnet as an analyst while recovering from injury for their broadcast of the 2011 Canadian Open.

In November 2011, Raonic won an exhibition match against his childhood idol, Pete Sampras, which was dubbed "The Face Off."

In 2012, he took up residence in Monte Carlo, Monaco in a 50metre2 (538sqft) apartment, located minutes away from the Monte Carlo Country Club—his "home" tennis club and the site of the Monte-Carlo Masters tournament—and Stade Louis II, which he uses for off-court training.

Raonic was in a relationship with Canadian model Danielle Knudson.

In April 2022 Raonic married in Italy model Camille Ringoir.

He has been ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he first achieved on November 21, 2016, making him the highest-ranked Canadian player in history.

Raonic is the first Canadian man in the Open Era to reach the Wimbledon final, the Australian Open semifinals, and the French Open quarterfinals.

He has won eight ATP Tour titles.

Raonic's career highlights include a major final at the 2016 Wimbledon Championships; two major semifinals at the 2014 Wimbledon Championships and 2016 Australian Open; and four ATP World Tour Masters 1000 finals at the 2013 Canadian Open, 2014 Paris Masters, 2016 Indian Wells Masters, and the 2020 Cincinnati Masters.

He played in the 2016 NBA All-Star Celebrity Game held in Toronto.