Music: {allcanada} Raonic's confidence high ahead of Olympics

Thursday, May 3, 2012

{allcanada} Raonic's confidence high ahead of Olympics

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Fresh off an impressive run at the Barcelona Open, Canadian Milos Raonic will now focus on the summer's bigger tournaments as well as the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The 21-year-old Raonic said he plans on being more selective with tournament play this summer to ensure he's in peak condition for the primetime events, including the grass courts in London for the Summer Games.

"For the summer as of now, I'm going to mainly play the big tournaments," Raonic told reporters on Wednesday. "I'll play one smaller event only and (that will) pretty much allow me to be healthy and be at my best come the big tournaments."

Raonic upset No. 4 seed Andy Murray in the quarterfinals of the Barcelona Open last week before falling to David Ferrer (currently ranked No. 6) in the semifinals.

The result bumped Raonic up to a career-high No. 23 in the men's rankings, and also gave the Toronto native a boost in confidence heading into a big summer for him.

"I'm feeling more and more confident, especially on the clay," Raonic said. "And it's given me a lot of confidence… to do well and sort of keep progressing and keep improving… and hopefully make the most out of every tournament," he added.

Earlier this year, Raonic defeated Serbia's Janko Tipsarevik in the Chennai Open final to claim his first ATP title of the year.

In February, Raonic claimed his second straight SAP Open title by defeating Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the championship match.