Milos Raonic

“I started playing street hockey, but there were tennis courts near my house, and it was my father who suggested I try. I don't really know why.”

“I would love to win a slam by the end of my career, and I would love to achieve other things. It's just that I am not a patient guy. When I want something, I try to get it as quickly as I can.”

“For me, a big thing, because I have really long legs, is core stability. It's very important not only for injury but also just to be able to carry my weight around properly and not feel like I'm collapsing in specific situations when I'm stretched out too far.”

“It's important to me to defend the Canadian colours. And I don't just do it in tennis. I might now follow hockey as much as the average Canadian, but I support several Canadian teams. I'm a big fan of the Toronto Raptors. On top of that, I love my country, simple as that. It's a magnificent country; the people are really welcoming.”

“I'm demanding and critical about myself. It's something my parents passed on to me.”

“It's an amazing feeling: tennis is growing very quickly in Canada, and to be a big part of it is an honour.”

“The thing I would hate myself for the most or regret the most is if I did not push myself to maximize my potential and my abilities.”

“Even in Canada, I never even played ice hockey. I never skated in my life; I always did rollerblade street hockey.”

“One time, I got to go play with lion cubs in Johannesburg. It was amazing. But it's difficult when you're on the road. We're always playing tennis, and there's a lot of pressure. So sometimes you don't get to do the things you'd like to do, because the priority is tennis.”

“Canada has been phenomenal to myself, my brother, my sister, their kids, my parents. They came there. They worked very hard. They came with a great education, very good heads on their shoulders with the simple thought of going there with almost nothing and just saying, 'We're doing this to give our kids the best opportunity possible.'”

“My game plan - doesn't matter who I play - is to play on my terms, to control as much as I can, to try to get control of the centre of the court, to try to dictate and make them move, to be their director rather than letting them impose their game on me.”

“I grew up watching North American sport - basketball, hockey - so I like it when it's a little bit more energetic, rowdier, heckling either for you or against you. I think it's fun to have that in sport.”

“You can ask a lot of the people around me - I'm very demanding. I expect them to be as intense about my tennis on a daily basis as I am.”

“The responsibility I have is a great thing, from helping tennis grow in Canada, but also in the future, being able to do stuff through my foundation, helping kids, and helping everyone I can, and really trying to make a difference. It would be a shame to be in the spotlight, have a voice and not do much with it.”

“There are still going to be great players that are baseliners. That's the way tennis - courts, balls, everything - has shifted. But everyone has to find their own way to win. Not everyone can run around the baseline for five hours. I can't.”

“I used to ski. I still play basketball a little bit. I'll play soccer but more in a safe environment, never on a full-grass pitch.”

“The first three years, I don't think I would leave my hotel room outside of tennis, because I was like, 'I got to rest, I got to rest.' It was like sort of a paranoia to do everything as best as I can.”

“When I speak to people I worked with when I was young, they constantly tell me they wish their students would work half as hard as I did. I was always one to get a lot more out of myself, seeing the glass as half-empty rather than half-full.”

“They say Montenegrins are intelligent, and maybe that's why I was pretty good in school.”

“When I'm playing well because of my serve and trying to keep points shorter, I don't need to worry about my opponent. All I need to do is focus on myself and have them adjust to me rather than me adjust to them. That's when I play my best tennis.”