On the face of it there was nothing extraordinary about Canadian Milos Raonic’s 50th tour level win on grass in the opening round of this week’s Hertogenbosch tournament – a 6-3 6-4 defeat of Miomir Kecmanovic.
But for the former world number three it marked the end of an injury nightmare that sidelined him for two years and made him doubt whether he would ever play again.
The big-serving 32-year-old was once a regular in the second week of Grand Slam tournaments and he reached the Wimbledon final in 2016 when he was beaten by Andy Murray.
But the injuries that had nagged him throughout his career returned with a vengeance in 2021 and after three months out with leg injuries another comeback stalled and he took a hiatus from the game that looked like becoming permanent. So Monday’s win over Kecmanovic was an emotional one for the Montenegro-born right-hander whose breakthrough inspired a new generation of Canucks such as Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov and 2021 US Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez. “It’s nice to be here after almost two years now and stepping away for a long time,” Raonic told ATPTour.com. “It’s nice to be giving it one more try and hopefully going as far as I can. I’ve put in the best effort I could, and I want to see how far it takes me.”
Raonic looked composed throughout the contest in which he offered plenty of glimpses of the serving power and thunderous forehand, but conceded he had been nervous. “I didn’t get to hit a single tennis ball for a full year, now I get to play in front of a bunch of people,” Raonic said. “It was pretty nerve-racking, I forgot that feeling.”
Raonic, who is playing with a protected ranking, said he is taking things ‘day by day’ and just enjoying the ride, after his long time away.
“It’s been a little heartbreaking a lot of the time when I couldn’t do anything and it’s nice for me to be here one more time,” he said.
Kyrgios vents over missing towels in
Stuttgart opening loss
Nick Kyrgios got upset over a lack of white towels as he made a losing return to tennis yesterday, ambushed by grass-court debutant Wu Yibing 7-5, 6-3 at the ATP Stuttgart event. The 25th-ranked Australian, who finished runner-up 11 months ago at Wimbledon to Novak Djokovic, was playing for the first time since undergoing knee surgery in January. His mood turned sour in the first set, with complaints about the colour of the towels, the bounce of the grass court and a shortage of sideline water from an eco-dispenser. But it was the coloured sponsor towels on court which got the Australian steaming.
“It took me three games to get white towels,” he said after his loss to the Chinese player who won the Dallas ATP title in February. “They soak up the sweat better. I’m the same at every tourney. The all have white ones in the locker room. “I’m not asking to move mountains. White towels actually take the sweat off my body – we are professional athletes.”
Kyrgios said that he still has work to do on his game and fitness after playing his first tour-level match since last October in Tokyo. “It was my first match in a long time,” he said. “I guess it was my final task of rehab to go out, play matches and see how my knee pulled up.”