Milos Raonic has fallen silent: The former third place on the world rankings said goodbye to the Australian Open 2018 almost silently on Tuesday.
No, it is still too early to feel too much sympathy for Milos Raonic. After all, the only 27 years of age has just passed, as the experience with Stan Wawrinka since his Australian Open victory in 2014 has taught the observers that the great tennis blossom can only occur beyond the age of 30. Raonic should also be unfamiliar with financial worries, the Canadian has collected more than 15 million US dollars in prize money, as a figurehead of his home country it is assumed that the advertising industry has also taken care of the service artist.
A defeat right at the start of a major, however, still hurts. Especially against Lukas Lacko, with all due respect.
But nothing helps. The story of Milos Raonic is one of many trial-and-error on the coach’s position and of frequent injuries, especially during the past twelve months. The last real highlight was to be announced from Wimbledon, Raonic ended the attack of Alexander Zverev as the actually inferior player.
A small intervention, so Raonic had it to the American TV audience while he sold US Open, that would be all his wrist needs. The intervention was perhaps small, but the effects were massive: Raonic hardly ever comes to tennis any more, is only ranked beyond the top 20 in the world rankings.
2018 had already started badly in 2018, with a straight two-set defeat against Alex de Minaur. The last match before that was Raonic in Tokyo – and after only one match against Yuichi Sugita, he had to give up.
“I’ve given what’s in my pocket right now,”Raonic said after 7:6 (5), 5:7,4:6 and 6:7 (4) against Lacko. The big question for the 27-year-old, however, is when will there be the next opportunity to see what Milos Raonic has in store? With Denis Shapovalov the Canadians would have a formidable Davis Cup duo, at the beginning Fedruar is going to Osiek against Croatia for the maple leaves. It’s hard to imagine Raonic being on board – but maybe the team experience is exactly what the Podgorica-born player needs right now.