How 2 years away from tennis taught Milos Raonic to enjoy the present
'It's all positive things when you can look at it as a whole,' says Thornhill, Ont., native
For 14 months after suffering an Achilles and toe injuries, Milos Raonic did not hit a single tennis ball.
Instead, for the first time since he was eight, the Thornhill, Ont., native explored the world outside of tennis.
He took classes and read books. He spoke to retired athletes about life after sports. He spent time with his family after being separated during the pandemic. Last April, he married longtime partner Camille Ringoir — the two of them now live together in the Bahamas.
Finally, after two years away from the ATP Tour, Raonic, 32, returned for June's Libema Open, a grass-court tournament that serves as a Wimbledon tuneup.
Over Raonic's career, which includes eight titles and a memorable run to the 2016 Wimbledon final, the towering six-foot-five Canadian became known for his over-powering serve.
And so of course, in his first service game of his first match back, Raonic made four double-faults.
"It was nerve-wracking. I really wish I could have enjoyed it more," Raonic told CBC Sports. "I'm not the kind of person that is very good at slowing down and enjoying the moment. I'm always like, 'What's next, what's next, what's next?'"
Raonic would only commit three-double faults the rest of the match en route to a straight-sets victory over 39th-ranked Miomir Kecmanović. He was eliminated in the second round before lasting two rounds at Wimbledon, the site of his greatest triumph, as well.
WATCH | Raonic wins 1st match back:
His next tournament is the National Bank Open in Toronto, which begins Monday. He also intends to suit up for the U.S. Open at the end of August.
But Raonic hasn't planned beyond that. Two years away from tennis taught him to enjoy the present.
"Since I had a few weeks since then," Raonic said, looking back on those first four matches, "I have to say I was very happy through it all and I was very in tune through it all and able to be at a pace, a goal, with an objective that I really enjoyed despite what in the moment might feel like stresses or frustrations.
"It's all positive things when you can look at it as a whole."
Perseverance through recovery
Raonic's last match prior to the Libema Open was a three-set loss to 115th-ranked Brandon Nakashima at a low-level Atlanta tournament in July 2021 — a contest that itself was his first in four months.
Thus began the arduous recovery process over which Raonic told Open Court that he lost 40 pounds thanks partly to a month-long diet consisting merely of one steak per day.
Besides quickly growing weary of red meat, Raonic said those 14 months without a racket weren't overly difficult, just because he knew the long road ahead.
It was his return to the tennis court that brought some frustration.
"A few times things would come up and then you'd kind of doubt yourself and you'd say something along the lines of, 'Am I going to get past this next hurdle or is this going to stick around?' You try to do something, you have a setback, you have to stop for a bit," Raonic said.
Yet Raonic persevered — a quality consistent in a career that had its fair share of injuries, said childhood coach Casey Curtis.
"The guy's just an incredibly hard worker. Very intelligent with his approach and shaking off some of the injuries. … So to be able to keep coming back and putting in the work — it's a lot of work to play at that level. So I think [he should be] very, very proud of himself."
Despite the occasional frustrations, Raonic's return to tennis training mostly reminded him of his love — and talent — for the sport.
It also re-energized his competitive spirit.
"The fact that I was able to do that and find that pretty quickly always kept me motivated because then I was saying, 'OK, I just have to figure out the physical and the body thing, not also the tennis thing on top of it,'" Raonic said.
WATCH | Raonic victorious in 1st round at Wimbledon:
Canadian foil
Raonic's next taste of competition in Toronto is also the tournament in which he has played some of his most unforgettable matches — including a thrilling 2013 semifinal victory in Montreal against fellow Canadian Vasek Pospisil, of Vernon, B.C.
"That was a lot of fun to watch because Vasek and his dad, we were competing with them when they were juniors," Curtis recalled. "And Vasek's dad and I used to talk about how one day he and Milos would be playing in big tournaments."
Pospisil, another wild-card entry for the 2023 event who just returned from a long injury layoff, remembers the three-setter as "intense."
"It was kind of like a healthy, competitive rivalry. I would say we were and still are to this day friendly. We've always had respect for each other. I would never say that we were friends. But I think that was the kind of rivalry that definitely pushed me," he said.
WATCH | Highlights from 2013 showdown:
Though Raonic's resumé is undeniably stronger overall, the Canadians traced somewhat similar career paths. Pospisil's greatest runs also came at the All England Club, where he won the men's doubles tournament in 2014 and reached the singles quarterfinals in 2015.
In recent years, however, both have been felled by injury.
Yet despite recent woes, the two could soon face off on home court yet again. Should that come to fruition, Pospisil expects some extra hype.
"Whoever I play I'm going to try to beat, but there's no question that if I were to play Milos that there would be a little bit of extra tension for both of us," he said.
'You just try your hardest'
For Raonic, the homecoming tournament will also mark the first time his parents get to see him in live action since before the pandemic.
"My parents have been through kind of everything that's happened in tennis: good, bad, fun, miserable," Raonic said.
Still, Raonic is tempering expectations. He said he knows he can still play well — but he also understands that might not necessarily lead to winning results.
"Will it come together in Toronto? I don't know. That's the hard thing about being two years away from things. You lose a lot of sense of relativity because you just are out of routine. You're out of that intuition aspect. You just try your hardest."
Curtis said as long as his body holds up, Raonic should still be a force thanks to his serve.
"He's not a guy that's going to come back and sort of play himself into it. He's going to come back and be ready to fire on all cylinders," Curtis said.
Raonic said that Curtis, who coached him from ages eight to 18, knows him "extremely well" because he witnessed the rawest version of himself — the one that didn't have to project a public persona.
Over the two-year injury recovery, Raonic was able to get back to that place, and he said he enjoyed the "privacy" and "anonymity."
It's why, when asked what his post-athletic future may hold, Raonic refused to engage in specifics.
"The one thing I do know: I will explore something away from tennis, just because if I was to come back to tennis, I want to come back to tennis because I missed tennis and it's something that I want to be more and more part of my everyday life — not because I didn't take the time to learn something else."
For now, Raonic is focused on his return home.
