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ROGERS CUP

August 6, 2018

Milos Raonic

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

M. RAONIC/D. Goffin

6-3, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. From Love-40 down, serving for the first set, you won 25 of the next 28 points on your serve. 20 of them were unreturned serves. Did you decide you didn't want to rally anymore?
MILOS RAONIC: I wish that decision was up to me, but I guess I like the way it went.

Q. This is the first match you played with the shot clock, I think. Did that have any effect or help you today in terms of the tempo and being able to play your own rhythm?
MILOS RAONIC: It just took a little bit of awareness. I wasn't sure necessarily the rules. I just had to ask a few questions a few times and that was it.

I thought it would be, but it wasn't really any different than usual. I don't think I've been warned or anything many times before in my career.

Q. What were you most pleased about your game tonight and how is the right leg?
MILOS RAONIC: The leg is good.

I think the way I was aggressive from the baseline, I hit my forehand well. It's something we spent these last two weeks working on. I think I can still serve much better. I don't think I necessarily served particularly well, so I'll take the time to work on some things tomorrow.

But overall, it was a very good performance as a first performance here. And mentally I was in the right state of mind the whole way through, and I was very disciplined with myself.

Q. You mentioned that you thought your service game wasn't that well, but you started the first game off without giving up a point with the serve. How important is that to get your service game going early on with the match moving forward?
MILOS RAONIC: Yeah, it is. Especially, you know, with the other guys, you know, if you can start off well, people know I have a very good serve. So if you can start off well, it sort of just sends the message across like, hey, this might not be that comfortable in terms of returning. I'm not going to have a lot of opportunities.

So it's important to be on top of it from the start, to be efficient, and sort of send that message across.

Q. Some athletes really look forward to playing in their hometown and for some it might be a distraction. How much do you look forward to playing here in Toronto each year and how do you take it?
MILOS RAONIC: I think the first few times I sort of dealt with it in the sense of a pressure. I think I have learned to enjoy it a lot more and just to embrace it. I think, really, being on the court is the most enjoyable aspect of it.

It's more the things sort of off the court and so forth that -- you know, you get a lot more taking requests from everybody, having to manage people necessarily. I'm not good at babysitting people. So that's maybe the part that I wish I could forgo, but the rest I think is a fun pleasure.

Q. We were watching Denis and Felix tonight. Unfortunately, they didn't win their doubles match. A lot of us were reminded back in 2010 of that night that you and Vasek had your match on center court against Rafa and Novak. How were you feeling at that time and did you realize or did you feel like it was a pretty big moment for you back at that stage?
MILOS RAONIC: You know, I think I took that -- that win was exciting, but I think I took it sort of with a grain of salt. I think I was sort of learning the ins and outs of the tour at that point. I hadn't had many exposures to it.

But you can also learn, and now I know definitely you have a lot of singles guys that are playing doubles just to get some extra time on court. It's not necessarily their main focus.

So I think in that moment it was a very proud moment and exciting moment, and then sort of it was fun to do it with Vasek, because we grew up together. But sort of after that you, you sort of realize, okay, this doesn't mean you're here by any means. You still have to put in a lot more work.

Q. Today there was five Canadians on the court at various points. And just going off the earlier questions maybe when you first arrived on the scene, how has the tennis landscape in Canada changed from then until today?
MILOS RAONIC: Numbers of participation have grown. You know, there's TV deals that cover tennis matches. That started in -- first, I think the first time Davis Cup was really covered on TV, if I remember correctly, was 2011 after I broke through.

Rogers SportsNet picked that up. I think that was a big start for -- I think, shortly after, you know, other matches were starting to get picked up. I don't think there was a full-time contract in place.

But if I did well in a tournament, the later stages were getting picked up. I don't know what the conditions were. Then it became a full-time thing where tennis, regardless, was being picked up.

And then also you have the sense of, you know, players are playing well. Players are coming close in tournaments and it's not one player, two players. It's a bunch.

And there's a lot more bright things to see in the future as well, which is exciting.

Q. With this being your first competitive match since Wimbledon, you had over two weeks to practice here in Toronto. How important was that preparation in tonight's match?
MILOS RAONIC: Yeah, it was nice to have that freedom of just training without sort of a deadline around. It was the first time in a long time that I was really able to put in some time without any physical hindrance. I just had to make sure that after Wimbledon my leg was healed.

But since then on, everything went well. I didn't know how things were going to play out today. I think when you don't play for a while you sort of have a little bit more stress because you don't know what you're doing well and what you're not. It's very different what you're doing well in practice and what you're going to step up and do well in the match. So I'm thankful that I did the things that I wanted to do well, and I did them well today.

Q. Was that weird with your shoe coming completely off and did it concern you at all when it happened?
MILOS RAONIC: I just didn't tie my shoes tight enough. I think that's just a self-error there.

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