Is Raonic a good step forward for tennis?

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So what do you think having seen Raonic probably only lose to Federer due to inexperience on the big points (and his return of serve needs some work too). But clearly this guy has the game to hurt all the top players and you can imagine he'll be challenging for all the top honours very soon. He has a serve that is up in the mid-140s, a huge FH and surprisingly good movement for a large guy...plus he plays an all court game.

Another point is - was it only a matter of time until a "Raonic" arrived anyway to act as foil to the games of the current top 4. Delpo threatened to spill over a couple of years back with his huge brand of tennis but he hasnt quite hit the top heights he threatened after USO 2009 (yet). And we saw that Berdych was another similar huge hitting tall guy who arrived in a flurry and had the potential to dominate but turned out to be too mentally weak to dominate. So is Raonic the real deal this time, and a step forward, or backwards? Could he dominate as a #1 given no guy over 6'2' has ever dominated the #1 position?

did you watch the match?

Raonic robbed federer of any rhythm at all!
When he needed it federer came up with the goods and perhaps raonic let him off the hook with poor shot selection but he didn't play a very bad match.
Karlovic i think served 50 odd aces at the french open a couple years back and lost to hewitt... a high number of aces doesn't necessarily mean you will win matches.

21 aces means 5 games are yours for sure. That is not tennis. I'm sorry. This "style" of tennis can irritate a dead horse. What a talent. To be born tall and you can almost beat Federer. Bring Yao Mind in and let him wait for Federer to make few mistakes.

So for that reason Raonic can be at the top of the list at some point. But the question is for how long he can stay there.

TBH I wasn't overly impressed with Raonic.

Playing on a slick court against a rusty, out of sorts Federer, who was playing his first clay match in months, while Raonic had already played a full tournament on clay as well as a match against Nalbandian in this tournament, but he still couldn't finish him off.

Raonic will always be dangerous particluarly in the early rounds, but once the top players have worked themselves into tournaments he will struggle to beat them with any consistency.

The only thing phenomenal about him is his size and serve. The rest, including the FH, is nothing special.

His chances of winning slams depend on the top three declining or him improving considerably.



emancipator

I like Raonic his game isn't as mechanical and as robotic as a lot of power servers. I generally don't like power servers. But I am very happy that Raonic as a young player who seems like a good representative of the sport is having success. The tour needs new blood at the top and I was starting to get worried about the generation of 18-22 year olds. I don't know if i would go as far as saying that game needs him, in general the game needs good young players. And the fact that Raonic is an attack first player does bring some variety to the table on a tour now renowned for speed, defense, and fitness.