Raonic pulls out of Wimbledon with leg injury

By Stephanie Myles, Postmedia News June 22, 2011

Milos Raonic of Canada reacts after falling during his match against Gilles Muller of Luxembourg at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London June 22, 2011.

Milos Raonic of Canada reacts after falling during his match against Gilles Muller of Luxembourg at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London June 22, 2011.

Photograph by: Eddie Keogh, Reuters

LONDON — Milos Raonic fell, and he couldn’t get up. In an instant, with that awkward, painful stumble on the lawns of Wimbledon’s new Court No. 3, the best Canadian’s hopes ended with a thud and a sharp pain.

The 20-year-old from Thornhill, Ont., left the All-England Club on crutches Wednesday evening, headed to the hospital for an MRI to determine the severity of a right hip injury incurred in the fourth game of his second-round match against Gilles Muller of Luxembourg.

Raonic ended up having to forfeit the match, leading 3-2 in the first set. Raonic, whose first serve of the match clocked in at 133 m.p.h., had just broken Muller’s serve and was preparing to consolidate that break when, on the first point of the game at 2-1, he was wrong-footed. He slipped trying to change direction, did the splits, and fell down in a heap with a look of agony on his face.

There he stayed for the longest time. He didn’t move until the tournament physiotherapist arrived. After treatment, and a wrap of his right upper thigh, Raonic tried to carry on.

He held his serve on one leg to take a 3-1 lead, but he was barely moving in the next game, forced to let Muller’s serves go whizzing by if they were more than a step away.

After a brief consultation with the trainer at 3-2, Raonic shook hands with Muller and slowly walked off court.

“It’s too soon for a diagnosis on what it is, but it’s something pretty deep in the hip,” Raonic said by phone on his way to the hospital. “It’s around both the inside and outside of the hip. A minor pull on the inside, but on the outside, it’s (related to) the joint.”

Raonic said he knew right away he was in big trouble. The pain was that sharp. He didn’t even think he would even be able to lift his leg.

“After the first serve, I could tell it was too much — at least, too much for me,” he said. “I had already slipped twice, so even if it wasn’t that bad right away, it would have gotten worse.

“I haven’t had too many injuries, so I can’t really tell. I don’t know my body that well. I’m really in the dark.”

The crowd gasped when it happened, and remained silent as Raonic lay on the court, all alone for a time after both chair umpire James Keothavong and Muller came to check on him.

Many had been looking forward to a potential matchup with defending champion Rafael Nadal in the third round on Friday. Raonic had been looking forward to it as well, although he didn’t make the mistake of looking past Muller, a huge left-handed server who had fired 35 aces in a four-set win over Tommy Haas of Germany in the first round.

Now, it is Muller, given a wild card after he won a small Challenger event on grass in Nottingham a few weeks back, who will play Nadal.

“It’s OK. It happens. There’s not much to learn from it. I hope it’s nothing too serious,” Raonic said. “It could be just a minor bruising that could get better in a few days. Or it could be something more serious.”

The bad break suffered by Raonic seemed to set the tone for the rest of the Canadians on Wednesday, a day that began with several hours of heavy rain but somehow cleared enough to get most of the scheduled matches in.

As Raonic began warming up on Court 3, Rebecca Marino of Vancouver was about to serve for the first set against No. 29 seed Roberta Vinci on Court 5, no more than 100 yards away. Marino was broken, and ended up losing the set in a tiebreak. It all went quickly after that; Vinci won 7-6, 6-2 and moves onto the third round.

“Maybe I didn’t serve as well in that game, but she also upped her level. She used her slice a lot, which is very effective on these courts because it creates no pace for me to hit off of. It’s hard to keep generating,” Marino said. “I don’t think I did anything terribly wrong, but that’s all in the past now.”

Stephanie Dubois of Laval, Que., was able to get on court earlier than scheduled because of the abrupt end to Raonic’s match. She followed him on Court 3 against No. 11 seed Andrea Petkovic of Germany. But although the 24-year-old played some of her finest tennis of the year, standing toe-to-toe with one of the better players on the WTA Tour this season well into the chilly, dark evening, it wasn’t enough in a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 defeat.

Marino isn’t done at her first Wimbledon. She will play her first-round doubles match with partner Ipek Senoglu of Turkey on Thursday, and also is in the mixed doubles with Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico.

Toronto’s Daniel Nestor and Adil Shamasdin of Pickering, Ont., also start their doubles campaigns on Thursday.

Montreal Gazette

smyles@montrealgazette.com

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