French Open: Raonic Announces Sad News

Milos Raonic recently lost to his countryman and the latest star on the circuit, Denis Shapovalov in the third round of the Madrid Open. With that win, Shapovalov moved above Raonic in the men’s rankings and is currently the highest-ranked Canadian. Now he has revealed that he will not be participating in next week’s French Open tournament. Raonic took to Twitter to announce the news.

Raonic was formerly ranked in the Top 10 of the men’s rankings and his highest position was no.3. He is known for his big serves, which aid him in stretching his opponents and wearing them down to win games. It speaks volumes of his talent and giant-killing ability on court. While he may not be one of the most consistent players, he sure could give any top player a run for their money on his day.

He has been a regular at all major Grand Slams and his best performance came when he reached the final of Wimbledon in 2016. He came up against home hero Andy Murray but could not spoil his party, losing in straight sets to the Brit. Raonic has also been a semifinalist at the Australian Open in 2016 but could not progress further, losing to Murray.

Interestingly, he has never won a singles on clay courts, an evident weakness for him. All of his wins have come in hard courts. He has won 91% of his service games, which is the third-best in the history of men’s tennis.

This news will come across as a disappointment for Canadian tennis fans as they could have finally seen two competitive players from their nation after a long time. Now that Raonic has pulled out, the onus is entirely on Denis Shapovalov to progress to the latter stages of the French Open.