Milos Raonic reveals TORN muscle he played through against John Isner at Wimbledon
MILOS RAONIC battled what he described as a torn thigh muscle that proved fatal to his Wimbledon hopes as he was beaten by John Isner in the quarter-finals.
In a battle of the tournament’s two biggest servers that produced 56 aces overall, Raonic had taken the first set tie-break but was already beginning to struggle.
Isner levelled the match in another breaker to leave them all square after an hour and a half, but just 76 minutes later the American was celebrating a 6-7, 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory.
But Raonic had been hampered from the beginning and admitted that there was little way back for him late in the match.
“[It was only] a service game and a half before I called for the trainer,” Raonic said.
“It feels like a tear of the muscle. I don't know to what extent.
“That's sort of the sensation I had.
“When I got back down a break in the fourth [the match was gone].
“Before that, I can hope to hold, try to put a few things here together, play maybe a good return point or two in the tie-break, maybe take care of my serve.
“But just once I got behind a break, it was going to be tough.”
Raonic and Isner were scheduled second on No 1 Court after Roger Federer and Kevin Anderson.
The Swiss had a match point in the third set but failed to take it and went on to lose the match in five stunning sets, the last one finishing 13-11 meaning the second pair did not get underway until close to 6pm.
However, Raonic refused to blame the stop-start nature of his pre-match routine for the problems he experienced during the match.
“I don't think it really makes any difference,” Raonic added.
“You're pretty warm when you see Roger has that match point because you can be on in two, three minutes pretty quickly after.
“That was the only time I really had to warm up.
“Maybe a little bit when I think he had that Love-40 game in the fourth, as well, in case he breaks there. Just had to warm up twice and sort of stop. That was really the only thing.
“I don't think the [Federer defeat] made any difference.
"Obviously you want it just as bad regardless each way. Maybe you see it more as an opening.
“But there was a difficult task ahead of me. I don't think I was looking past that.”