Milos Raonic feels that he deserves his place with tennis' big guns in the ATP World Tour Finals after he became the first Canadian to qualify for the London tournament.
Raonic got the better of 17-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer last week in Paris, as he was drawn to face Federer and defeated the Swiss 7-6(5), 7-5 to reach the semifinals where he beat Tomas Berdych and made it to the finals, only to lose to Novak Djokovic.
Not long ago, Raonic often struggled to assert himself against the top guns, but not any more. He said that it's the great things he was able to produce in Paris when his back was up against the wall, Stuff.co.nz reported.
The Montenegro-born giant, who reached his first grand slam semifinal at Wimbledon this year, admitted that he knew he was behind in the points race and had to fight his way through to make it possible, adding that he is happy with that.
Three years after Raonic was voted ATP newcomer of the year, he now stands at number eight in the world rankings and is part of a small battalion of players expected to be challenging the established big four for majors in the next couple of years.
Raonic said that he thinks the understanding of what he needs to do in specific situations, he now has a much clearer vision of how to go about things. But, he added that just because one has the vision one still has to execute and he has been able to do that.
Raonic could not have picked a tougher opener in London, with six-times former champion Federer waiting to exact revenge for that Paris beating on Sunday. He then would face Andy Murray and Japan's Kei Nishikori.
The Canadian said that the only thing that is quite different is that the other three times they played this year they had already played quite a few matches already.
