Knee injury sidelines former world no. 3 from Roland Garros
Waiting until the very last moment, Milos Raonic has decided to withdraw from the second Grand Slam of the season at Roland Garros due to a knee injury that has been bothering him for months. The 28-year-old Canadian has played 17 matches so far in 2019, entering six tournaments and missing the entire action on clay, struggling with injuries that have halted his progress in the last couple of years. Thus, Milos has joined Kevin Anderson and John Isner as the most notable players that would skip Roland Garros, traveling to the French capital and making the last-minute call to skip it and prepare himself for the grass season.
Making a debut at Roland Garros in 2011, Raonic won 14 matches overall there and advanced into the quarter-final in 2014 after a favorable draw, losing to Novak Djokovic in three tight sets. Milos had to skip the second Grand Slam of the season in 2015 and 2018 as well, playing the last match in 2017 against Pablo Carreno Busta that the Spaniard won 8-6 in the deciding set after four hours and 17 minutes. Unable to leave injuries behind and get back to the level from 2016, Milos has not been ranked in the top-10 since August 2017, reaching only three ATP 250 finals in the last three seasons and not lifting the trophy since Brisbane 2016.
Taking the best effort to get back where he belongs, Raonic lost in the quarter-final in Brisbane and the Australian Open, the fourth in the last five years, following only one win in February and withdrawal from Delray Beach. Taking advantage of a favorable draw, Milos was the semi-finalist at Indian Wells, suffering a tight loss to Dominic Thiem after two and a half hours before an early exit in Miami to Kyle Edmund, his last match of the season at the moment.
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2wi5Vas
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