Murray described Raonic as one of the “harder workers” on tour and the Canadian certainly is.
Surrounded by a team that includes three coaches, Italian Riccardo Piatti, Spaniard Carlos Moya, and more recently, American John McEnroe, Raonic has shown that he is willing to do everything to reach his goals and this past fortnight, he came close.
“I’m going to work on everything. I’m not going to leave any stone unturned. I’m going to try to get myself back in this position, try to be better in this position,” said Raonic, who despite his weapon of a serve, could only hit eight aces past Murray and landed just 64 per cent of his first serves in.
“I’m going to try to get fitter, stronger. I’m going to try to improve my return game, improve my serve. I can improve there. Improve my efficiency coming forward. There’s not one thing that I’m not going to try to improve.”
Raonic has no regrets and is proud of the fighting spirit he showed to get passed Roger Federer in the semi-finals, a stage he had stumbled at twice in the past.
“I showed guts. I showed vigor. I got to carry that through to the next events,” said the 25-year-old.
Raonic said he knew that in a maiden grand slam final, he would never be able to play his best tennis “by any means” but he still did enough to make it competitive.
“I was keeping up with him. But then when it counted, I wasn’t able to get on top,” said Raonic.
McEnroe has spent five weeks consulting with Raonic’s team and it is unclear if the American legend will continue working with them in the future.
Raonic hopes to have McEnroe still involved in some capacity, while Piatti believes the seven-time grand slam champion is a much-needed addition to what is essentially a team that is as stacked as the Golden State Warriors.
“I hope John stays part of the team because it’s good for everybody. He has great experience, he loves this game, he loves to work in a team and everybody wants him,” said Piatti.
The Italian coach said Raonic’s serve was not great but it was tied to the fact that he was not doing well on return.
“Serving was not great but for me every time he’s serving depends on how he’s returning. If he’s more aggressive, it’s more easy for him to serve and to make points and to control better. Today was not great but anyway a lot of respect to Murray,” said Piatti.
“Andy is a very smart player because when Milos is staying in the back, he’s moving, when Milos comes, he comes, so he knows a lot about that kind of game.
“That’s his experience that Milos does not have. Milos needs to play many of that kind of matches to get experience. That’s why I think Milos needs also to speak a lot with John McEnroe and Carlos Moya to understand much better how to use his potential.”