	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

BNP PARIBAS OPEN

March 13, 2011

Milos Raonic

INDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA

M. RAONIC/M. Fish
7-5, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Can you just explain about the injury or not injury or whatever it was and how it is?
MILOS RAONIC: I'm not exactly too sure right now what it is, but it felt sort of, by the treatment I was getting, just like a muscle spasm. It feels a lot better now.

Q. Back?
MILOS RAONIC: Back muscle spasm on the left, and it feels a lot better now. Tomorrow is a day off, so that's good news.

Q. Couple points before that you looked a little extended for a shot. Do you remember that? Was that anything to do with it?
MILOS RAONIC: Um, the thing is, as soon as I went on court it was sort of aching, and I was like, Okay, it's nothing major. It's a lot of matches this year. It's probably just an ache, a little nagging thing, normal.
Then it just kept getting worse and worse, and I sort of was just pushing and hoping to get by.

Q. Did you have to adjust your game after that? Did you change something?
MILOS RAONIC: I just tried to win. I wasn't able to serve my best, but I'm happy I could win.

Q. What does that say about your fighting spirit that you were able to ignore a potential injury?
MILOS RAONIC: I'm hungry for the wins. I want to win as much as possible. I want to reach new limits. I want to keep improving.
By winning today, especially here with a day in between, it's a good thing. I have a chance to recover fully and sort of treat and now come back in two days sort of hoping to play better, hoping to serve better, and hoping to feel better.

Q. Looking back at that match, what pleased you about it? What do you have to work on?
MILOS RAONIC: I was disappointed with my serve, but I'm pretty happy with -- a lot of people have been putting a lot of names on my serve, a lot of -- saying it's an explanation for a lot of things, but I think I showed I can also do well from the baseline not serving that well.
Only a few free points here and there. Other than that, I felt like I was trying to control and play aggressive from the baseline, and I think I did that well today.
I got a few lucky breaks and I was able to use it, so I'm happy with that.

Q. Your fastest serve today was 143, I think. Is that you best ever?
MILOS RAONIC: No, no, not even. I think I put 150 in Memphis. I think I hit 157 in the net. That's not my fastest.

Q. Have you ever had the back thing before?
MILOS RAONIC: No, I had at Davis Cup sort of like a spasm in the knee. So I guess this is similar, just on a different part of the body.

Q. You say like you respect your opponents, and obviously you had the moment with Mardy at the net there. But when you're lining up against the guy to serve to him, it looks like you want to annihilate him.
MILOS RAONIC: Yeah, but I'm pretty sure if he could serve that hard he'd try, want to annihilate me, too. So all is fair in war. (Smiling.)
Q. You have another American in the next round. Do you get energy from the crowd, playing Americans on their home turf?
MILOS RAONIC: Yeah, the crowd is amazing here to me. I guess there is a lot of snowbirds, like you call them, that come down here, a lot of Canadians. Even I think the Americans, some of them, support me, and I think this is good.
Something to sort of try to keep, and, you know, keep the respect from the crowd. Don't take it for granted. Not many tournaments in Canada, and if the crowd's going to make this feel like home, that's an amazing atmosphere to have.

Q. I know you played Harrison at the French Open juniors. How often have you played him aside from that?
MILOS RAONIC: I don't think I have played him since then. I think a lot has changed since then. That's all I can say.

Q. Have you played him before that much? Do you have a junior history against him?
MILOS RAONIC: I think he was up 2-1. I beat him the week before French Open juniors, and then he beat me the year before in December in Yucatan, a junior tournament, also.

Q. Have you heard your YouTube song?
MILOS RAONIC: Yeah.

Q. What do you think of it?
MILOS RAONIC: I think it's pretty sweet and nice, especially considering it was a school project actually. Even got the e-mail of one of the kids and sort of sent them thank you for it, because I think it was good on their part. I think it was a good to see that people think of me that way back home, and I think it was also nice.
But I hope for the kids that they got a good mark on their assignment or maybe the teacher doesn't think I was one of the big things to change in that last week in Canada.

Q. Can you just talk about your next opponent, Ryan Harrison? What are you expecting from him? What kind of game?
MILOS RAONIC: He's a fighter, he's feeling good, he's gonna go for his shots, he's gonna play, and he's gonna do a lot of things. I haven't had too much time to think about it.
Personally, before I came up here I didn't even know I was gonna play him in the next round, so I'm gonna have a day to think about it, a day to work on a few things, a day to get healthy. I'm feeling good about it. I'm feeling good. I feel like I'm playing well.
I feel like I'm posting up a lot of top 20 wins, top 50 wins consistently, and I think that's something to be proud of and something that isn't by luck or by chance. It's just a sign of my level.

Q. Did your back get better as the second set went on, or after you had the treatment did it sort of loosen up a bit? Did you feel a little better?
MILOS RAONIC: At that point, just adrenaline took over. To tell you the truth, it was getting worse by bit by bit throughout the match. At one point you just -- you take that opportunity you have. You're up a set, and you just try to go for a few minutes and see where it ends, if it can go your way, and luckily today it did.

Q. Did he say anything special to you afterwards? He seemed to be quite gracious.
MILOS RAONIC: No, he was very polite and he was -- I just said to him, I don't know -- I'm new to the tour, so I don't know what people expect, especially sort of these situations and pain, so I just apologized.
I said, If what I was doing was unprofessional, I'm sorry. He said, It's okay, I didn't notice anything.

Q. You mean taking the timeout?
MILOS RAONIC: No, not just taking the timeout, just hunching over a few times during the points.
Personally, it's not fun to watch from the other side, especially when you're on the down end of the match. So I just respect my opponents. I respect him. He's done a lot of great things, and I wanted to apologize if he thought it was incorrect. He didn't think it was incorrect, so that was nice.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297