By Chris Oddo                                   Photo Credit: George Nikitin
February 19, 2012

Missiles. Bombs. Lasers. Whatever you want to call the serves that fly off the racquet of 21-year-old Milos Raonic, they are ridiculously effective.

Raonic, aptly and affectionately dubbed the "Maple Leaf Missile,” became the first two-time winner on the ATP tour this year when he completed a convincing 7-6(3), 6-2 serving clinic of a victory over Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the SAP Open final in San Jose.

With the win Raonic becomes the first player to win San Jose back-to-back since Andy Murray took successive titles in '06 and '07. According to Matt Cronin of Tennisreporters.net, of the six men to have achieved back-to-back titles in the tournament's history, four have won Grand Slam titles and the other two have reached finals.  

Not a bad omen for the 2011 ATP newcomer of the year, who won a whopping 44 of 48 service points against Istomin, and also erased any bad feelings that might have been lingering after his pull-out of Davis Cup with a knee injury last weekend.

Apparently, the knee is fine and the serve is fine. More importantly, the career of one of the most formidable servers that the sport has seen in a long time is back on track.

When he serves the way he did this week, it’s hard not to wonder if Raonic isn’t on the fast track to the top ten, maybe even higher.

In his eight career San Jose matches, Raonic has won 83 of 85 service games. When the situation has called for it he's been clutch too, taking each of his eight contested tiebreakers at San Jose over two years.

To his credit, Istomin made a match of it in the early going. The 25-year-old, who took out Americans Sam Querrey, Andy Roddick and Michael Russell en route to his second career final, didn't allow a break point in the first set. But his efforts to become the first maiden title winner on the ATP tour this season were curtailed when Raonic outplayed him in the first set tiebreaker.

To make matters worse, Istomin allowed Raonic to convert on the only two break points of the match, which came in the fourth and eighth games of the second set.

Just like Raonic's other three opponents this week in San Jose, Istomin discovered that the only way to win a set off of Raonic when he is serving so hot on a fast indoor court is to steal a tiebreaker.

And that can be a tall order too.

Raonic summed it all up pretty nicely after the match, with what might be the understatement of 2012. “I think I served pretty flawlessly throughout the week,” he said.

“I won just four points on his serve,” said a shell-shocked Istomin. “I knew he was a great server and a good player. It’s very difficult to return.”