TENNIS ATP FINALS 2014 – Milos Raonic announced that he is forced to pull out of his final match in Group B because of a thigh injury sustained in the match against Murray. The Canadian will be replaced by David Ferrer. From London, Paul Sassoon
At 12.30, just an hour and a half before he was scheduled to start his match against Kei Nishikori, Milos Raonic called a press conference announcing that he is forced to pull out of his final match in Group B at the ATP Finals because of a thigh injury sustained in his match against Andy Murray. The match will still go ahead as planned, but the Japanese player will be replaced by Spain’s David Ferrer as the first alternate here in London.
Listen to Raonic’s press conference
In the press conference the Canadian explained the nature of the injury he sustained, “It’s something I sustained in the last match. Through extensive research with the doctors team we have here we found that I have a slight tear in the vastus medialis in my quad and a large area of swelling about 5 cm long and 3 cm wide with 1 cm deep of swelling.”
The Canadian said he picked up the injury in his previous match which was against Murray on Tuesday evening, “It happened towards the end of the first set. It originally felt like cramping, but I had more of an idea when I sat down at the change over and then I had to stand up and that’s when I could feel there was something that wasn’t necessarily a cramp.”
Raonic will be replaced by the first alternate at this year0s ATP Finals, David Ferrer who has no chance of qualifying to the semifinals but he will receive $85,000 as alternate presence fee and if he wins he will earn an extra $155,000 if he wins the match for a total of $240,000. The situation for the rest of the players in Group B does not change, Nishikori still needs to win. The head to head between the two players is 5-3 in favour of the Japanese who won all 4 matches played in 2014. The last one was just a couple of weeks ago at Paris-Bercy in the quarter finals (3-6, 7-6(5), 6-4).
Raonic said that he wanted to play on, but the risk was too great even with the off-season right round the corner, “at this event it’s all about being at the top of your game, and I can’t be close to that today. It would be unfair towards the fans if I was to step out there… I was consistently told that if I was to step out on court I would be walking a tight rope where I can play, obviously not at 100%, but with the significant risk of losing 6 to 8 weeks if things go badly.”
