It was one memorable (2011) season for the 6'-5" Canadian, who has a penchant for slamming down aces and going for powerful groundstrokes in his matches. Booming serves and aces rained from his racquet as he edged the favourite Janko Tipsarevic in the final at Chennai on Sunday. In fact, he had 35 aces in the final to tally 76 in the tournament.
The gentle giant is not only about his serving, he has also showed the willingness to rally from the back of the court, especially in the final against the wily Serbian, who himself was coming off a wonderful 2011 during the course of which he broke into the top 10 of the ATP world rankings.
Raonic enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2011 in which he won his maiden ATP crown at San Jose after reaching the round of 16 at the Australian Open as a qualifier and looked set for bigger things when injury laid him low. He missed two months after undergoing surgery in July but the latter half wasn't as good with only a semifinal showing at Stockholm being the highlight.
The lanky Canadian had zoomed from a world ranking of 156 to 31 at the end of the year and was being spoken as a player for the future. When he arrived in Chennai for the opening tournament of 2012, he was seen among the contenders with pundits wanting to see how he performed in rather testing conditions. To say he has emerged with flying colours would be an understatement.
It must be noted that Raonic becomes the first player to win an ATP World Tour title without dropping serve since Roger Federer at the 2008 Gerry Weber Open in Halle (49 games).
The serve is his Raonic's most important weapon and he made it count when it mattered against Tipsarevic in last night's encounter. He said as much after the triumph: 'You must have a clear mind and that was my focus the whole time. My first job was to take care of my serve because I know if I do that I am going to have my opportunities.'
'It is a great feeling having that security and when you take care of your service games. It is not only about ending on the fortunate side but it is more important to win a tournament. It is my second win and it is an awesome feeling,' he said.
It may be a great feeling to possess a monster serve but it wouldn't be for his rivals as Tipsarevic found out in Chennai.
With a blistering serve at his disposal, he could do well by working on his baseline game, which would make him an even more daunting opponent.
On occasions, his blazing forehand had the Serbian in a spot of bother while the backhand was malfunctioning. The Canadian was however optimistic of getting better and said, 'I think I created a lot of opportunities today against Janko. In the first set, he took away the opportunity from me. I had two chances in the second set and third set too, he took them away from me.'
After starting 2012 in style with a trophy in Chennai, Raonic will now head to Australia where his fairytale run began in the year gone by and if he can reproduce the form shown in the southern metropolis of India, he can be a threat to the best.
In an era when the top four (Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray) have dominated tennis barring a few spectacular shows by the likes of Juan Martin del Potro, there is a need for new talent and Raonic is one player who can provide the spark.
Raonic enjoyed a superb run in 2011 and the onus would be on him to better that this year and a top-20 (or a top 10) berth wouldn't too far away for the man with the unbreakable serve, who has climbed to 25 in the world rankings after the Chennai triumph.
