HawthorneVillager.com

Anyone following this great tennis story. Milos Raonic, who started the year at 150-something in the ATP rankings has since moved up to 59 by a great showing in the Aussie Open and then being the first Canadian to win an ATP tournament in 16 years last week. He's now in the semi-finals (starting right now literally) of another tournament and is guaranteed to move him into at least the top 50, potentially even higher.

At the rate that he's going, I'll be really surprised if he's not ranked top 20 in the world by the end of the season. Given how he's among the youngest players in the top 100 in the world, he's really poised to become a major name in tennis, all from a guy from Thornhill.

+1

And he's into the final.

On a related note, Canada's best female player, Rebecca Marino, plays in the tournament final tonight. It's a great time for Canadian tennis.

Tough loss to Roddick although people are beginning to notice. New ranking of 37 for this finals appearance.

Great match though. And he probably learned a ton from this match, and gains confidence knowing he can keep pace with a guy like Roddick on his best surface on home soil.

He starts in a big clay court tournament this week as well, so, it'll be interesting to see how well he adapts to that. It'll be a nice test for him.

He did play well and I'm excited for his future but he clearly needs to develop his game beyond his serve.

He will be great on grass and may pull a few upsets a la Ivanišević.

Wimbledon is finally here and the one Slam I think he'll do the most damage*.

*Obviously, because it's a tournament for servers.

One down....