Milos Raonic assembled no-expenses-spared team to help win a Grand Slam

On a day like today, it looks like Milos Raonic has it all. But the one thing he doesn't have consumes him every day – because it now seems closer than ever.

The Canadian tennis star strolls into a room packed with news cameras and adoring kids, ready to announce his support of a program for children with cerebral palsy. He's with his devoted parents Dusan and Vesna, his beautiful girlfriend, Canadian model Danielle Knudson, and one of the coaches from the world-class team he's built around himself, former No. 1 player Carlos Moya.

Raonic is in the middle of a whirlwind day back home in Toronto ahead of next week's Rogers Cup. It's been less than two weeks since he appeared in the Wimbledon final, and the magnetic player is in enormous demand.

During a week full of interviews, appearances and practices lined with cameras, the likeable star is now at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, bounding around like a boy as he plays sports and video games with its patients. Next he'll zip downtown and appear with Mayor John Tory at a pop-up tennis court in Nathan Phillips Square, flanked with autograph-seeking fans. Then he'll be whisked off to a VIP gathering for his biggest sponsor, New Balance.

Raonic is ranked No. 7 in the world and has earned $3.25-million in prize money this season – more than $12-million throughout his career. He seems to have everything a 25-year-old guy could want in life, but merely hovering in the top 10 of the ATP rankings doesn't cut it for him. Now healthy and playing the best tennis of his career, his chase to be a Grand Slam champion and World No. 1 is in full throttle.

"I've got to get myself back in that position – back in a Slam final," said Raonic, sitting down to an interview with The Globe and Mail during a quiet moment at the hospital, reflecting back on his straight-sets loss to Andy Murray in the Wimbledon final. "When I do, I've got to be better, and I've got to make it count."

In the midst of a jam-packed summer with the U.S. Open just five weeks away, the 6-foot-5 star with the blistering serve made the difficult decision to pull out of the Rio Olympics. He feels he made the right call not to fly 10 hours to South America and compete in the eight-day Olympic tournament. But he's struggled to live with it, because he wants to be there among Canada's athletes, as he was at the 2012 London Olympics. This time, he saw too many risks.

He was very leery about over-scheduling himself and jeopardizing the end of his ATP season. He was also worried about the illnesses he could get from the mosquito-borne Zika virus in Brazil and the birth defects it could cause to future offspring.

"Zika was something I was nervous about, because I thought about lots of things, like when I'd like to start a family or about getting the flu-like symptoms and losing a week or two or my preparations before the next Slam," Raonic said. "The unknowns about Zika concerned me, and I've always had bad experiences with mosquitos. You know when a group of people are outside and that one guy is getting bit by mosquitoes like crazy? That's me. It added tension for me."

With everything coming together for Raonic right now, he was scared of overextending himself with extra travel, matches and the emotional highs and lows of an Olympics. He's dealt with injuries to his back, feet and hip in the past. He made it to this year's Australian Open semi-finals, but limped through a loss to Murray with a leg injury.

"In my career, I've never had that continuous momentum when I get things going," Raonic said. "So right now I'm just trying to give myself that opportunity as best I can."

Raonic is sparing no expense to get to the top. He's been working with veteran coach Riccardo Piatti for a few years, but the Canadian has also added two former No. 1 singles stars to his team. John McEnroe recently came on board (although he won't be along in Toronto). Moya has been working with Raonic since January.

"The chemistry is excellent when you watch them all work together," said his father, Dusan Raonic. "It's great to watch when they practise with Milos – they are having fun on the court, and it's really working."

The trend of super-coaches on the ATP Tour is hot. Stefan Edberg was helping Roger Federer, and now Boris Becker is working with Novak Djokovic, while Ivan Lendl is coaching Andy Murray.

"His agent approached me, but I wanted to talk to Milos first because I hadn't travelled in a long time and I have three kids, so I wanted to make sure he was really committed to reaching his goals before I said yes to working with him," said Moya, winner of the 1998 French Open. "The first chat I had with him, I realized he had great potential and was very, very dedicated to his goal. A year ago if people heard Milos saying his goal was to be a Grand Slam champion and World No. 1, they might not have believed it was possible. I believed it when I talked him that day. I think people believe it now too."

Raonic brushes off the idea of too many cooks in the kitchen and says he's willing to listen to any advice the former champs have to offer.

"Carlos has helped me deal better with things off court so I don't drain myself so much, like tension and overthinking things on an off-day about the guy you play next," Raonic said.

"John is helping me get more intensity out of myself on the court. Some would perceive he was really robust and negative on court when he played, but he's actually not a negative person at all. He thinks I need to get the tension and nervous energy out that builds up and use it the right way. I think that helped me a lot throughout Queens and Wimbledon. When you have a guy big like me who has weapons and can express intensity, it can be daunting for an opponent to look over at me."

Raonic had Canada gripped as he rollicked to topple Roger Federer in a thrilling five-set Wimbledon semi-final, exorcising the ghosts of his loss to the Swiss superstar in the semis at the All-England Club two years earlier.

But two days later, it cut Raonic deep to lose in his first Grand Slam final, as 1.6 million Canadians tuned in for the most-watched men's tennis match in the nation's history. Moya could relate to Raonic in the aftermath, having lost his first Slam final to Pete Sampras at age 20 in the 1997 Australian Open.

Moya views Raonic as "the No. 3 player in the race right now." He believes that by keeping the towering player in a manageable number of tournaments this summer, he can be a serious contender at the U.S. Open.

"I think maybe the question isn't what does Milos need to do to win a Slam, but what does he need to do to beat Djokovic or Murray, because he's proven he can beat the other guys," Moya said. "It's clear to us what he needs to improve and we're working hard on that, but we're strictly keeping that between us. We keep that very quiet. To beat those two guys, you need something a little different."

Murray, Federer and Rafael Nadal have all pulled out of the Rogers Cup. It's Raonic's best opportunity to win Canada's sole event on the ATP Tour. It's the only pro tennis event he ever attended as a spectator before he went pro. No Canadian has taken the title since Robert Bédard won the Canadian Open in 1955, 1957 and 1958.

This summer, his profile has reached peak popularity, but it's the hardware that Raonic craves.

"He's very popular, very big, the best Canadian player ever, the first Canadian in a Slam final. But this kind of glory isn't enough for Milos," Moya said. "He wants to be No. 1 in the world and a Grand Slam champion, and we want to help him get there."