By Nick Georgandis
TennisNow.com
This space reserved for Mikhail Youzhny.
The party crashing has officially begun at the Australian Open, with Youzhny, ranked 10th in the world, tossed to the sideline as a spectator from here on out.
Taking his places of prominence, is a 20-year-old from a country about as famous for its tennis players as the United States is for its cricket stars.
Born in Podgorica, Montenegro, Milos Raonic moved to Canada with his parents, both engineers at age three, and started playing tennis at age eight. He learned the game early in the morning or late at night because his dad "used a ball machine at 6:30 a.m. or 9 p.m. because court fees were a lot cheaper."
At 6-feet, 5-inches, 198 pounds, Raonic is wiry with a ferocious serv. He made his pro debut in March of 2007 playing Canadian events, and entered the rankings at the rather distant position of 1,518. He did not play an event outside of Canada until the followign April, then went abroad later that year, eventually entering the ATP Masters in Canada and losing in his first round of qualifying. His first pro tournament win came at Canada's F2 in March of 2009 while he was still ranked 804th.
Later that year he reached at least the semifinals of three straight events in Thailand, winning one, to push his way into the Top 400. Starting 2010 ranked 371st, he saw time in the first round of the Davis Cup as Canada fell to Colombia. Raonic played his first Challenger level event in May of 2010, reaching the finals at Granby that July. He made an even bigger splash at the US Open, fighting through three rounds of qualifying to reach the main draw and losing in four sets to Australia's Carsten Bell.
The fall of 2010 was a revelation for the Canadian, as he went from qualifying at Kuala Lumpur to reaching the quarterfinal. He followed with a second-round appearance at Tokyo.
Raonic idolized Pete Sampras growing up, recording all of his televised matches and is an avid sports fan of Real Madrid and the Toronto Raptors, which probably takes a lot of patience.