Another day, another 'do for Canadian tennis star Milos Raonic
MELBOURNE, Australia – In two days, Milos Raonic's hair morphed into the photo above, from the original 'do, seen below.
To the far more sleek, streamlined look you see in the top pic.
It even looks like it's already growing out. The 'do is a living, breathing organism with a life (and a Twitter) of its own.
Meanwhile, on the court, the No 8 seed in the men's singles draw, who will get his Australian Open campaign under way on Tuesday (as will countryman Vasek Pospisil) has been taking care of business.
On Friday, Raonic practiced with reigning Australian Open champ Stan Wawrinka on the new Margaret Court Arena. The retractable roof was open, and the sun, glare and heat were beating down.
Wisely, Raonic chose to practice with a hat – so the hair was playing possum a little bit, camouflaged under the cap.
Raonic famously doesn't like playing with a hat on. He's not alone there. But he's smart enough to practice with one before the Australian Open, knowing there will be days when he needs it.
Before last year's tournament, Raonic practiced regularly with it. Unlike several players who went out in the 45C heat (not to mention any names, but Snoopy was involved) bareheaded, Raonic handled the extreme heat just fine.
On Saturday, after doing a promotional event for clothing sponsor New Balance Saturday morning during the Kid's Day festivities (New Balance has big presence around the grounds here), the Canadian went out and practiced with another top gun, David Ferrer of Spain.
Once the qualifying event was over, and the 16 successful qualifiers placed, Raonic found out who his first-round opponent would be.
It will be Illya Marchenko of Ukraine, a talented if inconsistent player who was ranked a career-best No. 67 in 2010, but is currently at No. 144, which is why he had to slog through the qualifying.
The two have never played each other, not even in the minor-league Challengers or Futures tournaments.