Milos Raonic was willing at the US Open, but his back didn't cooperate
NEW YORK – Milos Raonic’s spirit was more than willing at this US Open.
But the back was weak.
The issues the 24-year-old Canadian had with his back during his second-round match against Fernando Verdasco weren’t enough to prevent him from pulling out a four-set win. But Friday against No. 18 seed Feliciano Lopez, another Spanish lefty, they were exponentially worse and Raonic’s US Open is done after a 6-2, 7-6, 6-3 defeat.
“I guess it started 20 per cent worse, and probably ended up around 60 per cent worse than other days,” a subdued Raonic said, rating his frustration an 85 on a scale of zero to 100. “It’s not enjoyable. It’s not fun. Just try to make the most of some situations and deal with it as much as you can. Obviously what I had in my capacity wasn’t enough today.”
Here are some moments from the match.
It’s not difficult to tell when someone has a bad back, no matter what they’re doing. In tennis, the tell can often be the return of serve stance, in which the crouch isn’t as low as it usually is. Or it’s in the stretch for a wide ball, which looks laboured. Mostly, there’s a fairly clear discomfort, and Raonic spent most of the match trying to fight through it.
Unlike during his match against Verdasco, during which he had treatment on the court, he left the court for a medical timeout to have the back attended to.
The velocity on the moneymaker serve was way down; only in the second-set tiebreak did Raonic try to pump it up to its usual levels, an effort that turned out to be in vain.
Once he was two sets down, it was all but over. By the end, Raonic was merely arming in the serve; the radar gun was spewing out numbers that were completely unfamiliar to regular followers of the Canadian thunderballer.
“I’m sure many would have told me when they saw how I was moving that there's no point in doing it, but it's just not the way I work or I process things,” Raonic said.
It has been a tough four months for Raonic, from the original pain from the nerve in his foot that forced him to retire during his quarter-final match against Tomas Berdych in Monte Carlo, to the surgery on the foot nearly a month later, to the accelerated recovery to try to get ready for Wimbledon.
The back issue, which may or may not be related to Raonic’s body compensating for the weakness in the foot – he now says it’s not related – compromised his summer.
He couldn’t defend his title at the ATP Tour event in Washington, D.C., and went out in his first match at both the Rogers Cup in Montreal and the big tournament in Cincinnati the following week.
Given that, a third round here isn’t so bad; truthfully, had Verdasco raised the level of his fight in the second round, Raonic might have been in big trouble two days earlier.
The Canadian did manage to get to the third round at Wimbledon before losing to Nick Kyrgios, and he did reach the third round here – one round less than he managed a year ago when he lost that late night, marathon five-setter against Kei Nishikori on Arthur Ashe Stadium in the round of 16.
“Yeah, I guess there's that sort of silver lining in the whole thing. Even when I'm not playing well, I have enough, at least at this point, understanding and experience of how to deal with situations so that I can sort of scrap my way through and always give myself some kind of chance to win, which is definitely different from where I was a year ago, and definitely when I started out consistently on tour in 2011,” Raonic said. “A lot of things have changed. I'm not too worried about my tennis at this moment. I'm more worried more about the other things.”
There is no significant break planned for Raonic to get the back right. He said that unless something changes, he’s still on track to play the small ATP Tour event in St. Petersburg, which begins in 2 1/2 weeks.
“Hopefully I can play a lot more tennis this fall. Indoors has always been good for me. Asia's always been good for me. I'd like to make something out of that,” he said.
