Hot News: Milos Raonic weighs himself against the best at Rogers Cup and beyond

TORONTO - Milos Raonic was deep in thought.

The No. 6 ranked Canadian had just been asked for his best matches of the year and he was having difficulty coming up with an answer. It's been that kind of year so far for him.

Less than 24 hours prior, Raonic had defeated Canadian Vasek Pospisil to win the Citi Open in Washington. A month earlier, he had advanced to his first Grand Slam semi-final after beating Nick Kyrgios. And back in March, he came back after losing the first set and beat Andy Murray at Indian Wells.

Any one of those would have been obvious choices. Instead, Raonic chose a somewhat meaningless win that came after an injury and a match that he lost.

'I played great against Novak in Rome,' he said of the 7-6 (5), 6-7 (4), 3-6 clay-court loss in May.

It was a window into what drives Raonic. He is ranked higher than he has ever been before, but he still measures himself against the best. The titles are fine. The ranking is important. But he does not sound like he will be content until he is at the top. And so that match against Djokovic, which required two tie breaks and three hours to play, was a step forward.

It showed Raonic, who fired 17 aces and won 75% of his first serve points, that he is capable of hitting with the best. It showed that the seemingly impenetrable wall made up of the top-three players in the world - Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer - might be capable of crumbling.

To Raonic, that was almost as important as winning the match itself.

'It's great all the things that have happened in this past year,' said Raonic. 'I think the progress I have made, the development I've been fortunate to go through. Yeah, the sights pretty much go down now. It's five, four, three, whatever comes after that. It's about getting better each week and figuring out a way to win matches.'

More and more, it seems that Raonic is figuring that out. Though the recent win in Washington was his first of the year, the Thornhill, Ont., native has reached the quarter-finals in eight of 11 tournaments, including three semi-final appearances.

Raonic is expected to keep that trend alive at this week's Rogers Cup, especially after he reached the final in last year's tournament in Montreal.

'It was the only tournament I went to as a spectator on the ATP Tour,' said Raonic, who received a first-round bye and plays the winner of Jack Sock and Jurgen Melzer on Wednesday night. 'So I remember when it was just down a few blocks away down the street, they used to have like under 12 kids playing for 10 minutes before the matches. I did that once. Rogers Cup memories back at that old venue were really big for me.

'It's the tournament I would say I look forward to probably the most as far as atmosphere goes and one of the more, probably one of the most important tournaments to me and my schedule.'

How important might depend on who he faces - and beats - on his way to the championship.

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