Milos Raonic. That is a name to keep your eye on this summer at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Raonic is fresh off becoming the first Canadian male to ever reach a grand slam singles final where he ultimately fell victim to Andy Murray at Wimbledon on Jul. 10.
Raonic currently sits number seven in the world rankings, which tallies all points accumulated in the previous 12 months but sits number three in the 2016 singles race, which tallies only points accumulated in 2016.
The two men ahead of him?
Current world number one Novak Djokovic, who prior to losing in the third round at Wimbledon held all four major titles dating back to last year’s Wimbledon, and current world number two Murray, who has lost just one tennis match since May 8 going an incredible 23-1 over that time.
Those two players are the undisputed top two players in the world with Djokovic winning the first two majors and Murray playing in all three grand slam finals so far this season.
But it was not easy for Murray as he nearly did not make the final of the first major of the year.
Why? Because Raonic gave him one heck of a scare going up two sets to one before an adductor injury hindered his ability to move and he dropped the match in a tough five sets.
Raonic’s next closest competitor is Rafael Nadal, who has collected most of his points this season on the clay courts, where he is considered one of if not the best players of all time. Nadal has not played a match in over a month after withdrawing before his third round match at the French Open with a wrist injury.
The Olympics will be played on the hard court surfaces, which suits Raonic’s hard-hitting game.
In his career Raonic has qualified for 19 professional finals, winning eight of them with all his wins coming on hard courts.
His success has made him the most successful Canadian singles player of all time, and his finals appearances and wins are more than all other Canadian male singles players combined.
Before Raonic gets to the Olympics he will first be competing at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, where he qualified for the finals in 2013 as a much less polished version of the player he is today. Assuming he stays healthy, which has been a big concern for him in the past he can gain some much needed confidence from the tournament to take in to Rio.
Once the Olympics start, Murray and Djokovic are going to be tough to beat but Raonic has beaten Murray three times in the past and put a scare into him on the hard courts of the Australian Open, and as was proven at Wimbledon Djokovic is far less unbeatable than most people thought.
If Raonic can continue to play at the level he has so far this year or can exceed that level, a win over Djokovic or Murray may not be far off.
Even if he cannot beat one of those two players a medal is still well within the realm of possibility as he has proven to be the third best player on tour this year.
So when the Olympic tennis tournament starts on Aug. 6 look for Raonic to have the opportunity to bring home the countries first Olympic singles tennis medal and just the second ever after Daniel Nestor and Sebastien Lareau won gold in men’s doubles in 2000 at the Sydney Olympics.
After all he needs to string together just four wins in a row to qualify for the medal round, which is something he has done twice within the last month.
