Raonic Turns Focus To Grass, McEnroe Partnership

Milos Raonic turned his focus to the grass-court swing and a three-week partnership with John McEnroe on Sunday following a fourth-round exit at Roland Garros.

The Canadian, who currently works with Carlos Moya and Riccardo Piatti, explained the reason why former World No. 1 McEnroe has agreed to join his team as a consultant.

“I was sort of just looking for another set of eyes to be a bit more efficient on grass, and I think people are seeing it as just for grass,” said Raonic, after he lost to Albert Ramos-Vinolas in Paris. “It’s about generally improving. I want to improve coming forward and I want to improve putting more pressure on my opponents.

“I feel like I was a lot more efficient at the beginning of the year coming forward, and it’s something that I would like to put a lot of attention to. It just works out with grass that’s probably the thing that will benefit me the most. Now, in the three weeks leading to Wimbledon, we are going to work, and really put some attention to that.

“[There are] other parts of my game that I can do a bit differently to be better, and it’s not by any means just with the intention of Wimbledon. It’s about generally improving.”

McEnroe, who now works as a television commentator and is a part of the ATP Champions Tour, spent 170 weeks at No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings.

“It’s a great honour and there’s a lot I want to achieve,” said 25-year-old Raonic. “I’m maybe far from it today, but I feel like I’m a lot closer and I’m going to try to do everything I can to sort of maximise giving myself the opportunity to achieve those goals.

“At the end of the day of the day, every coach I have is to some extent an adviser, and it is my job personally, out of everything I hear, to weigh what it’s worth and weigh what is best for me. I’m the CEO of the Milos Raonic Tennis. That’s it… I know everybody I have around me wants to help me to the fullest.

“It’s not a focus for just Wimbledon. It’s John coming along to help me improve in general.”

Raonic reached the 2014 Wimbledon semi-finals and has an 8-9 record in ATP World Tour finals (all on hard courts). The World No. 9 will next compete at the Aegon Championships in London.