Raonic Bows Out

It's part of the tennis world that's tough to stomach sometimes, more so when it's juxtaposed against the injuries and agonies of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

For the playoffs, NHLers will endure pretty much anything and everything. "It's just teeth," said Martin St. Louis of the Lightning in the first round when asked how he managed to recover so quickly and play.

Tennis, however, often sees players bow out of tournament play for a variety of reasons, and only occasionally it seems to be serious or painful injuries that simply prevent them from continuing.

Such was the intriguing case today for Canada's Milos Raonic, now ranked No. 27 in the world, in his semifinal match at the ATP event in Estoril, Portugal against Spain's Fernando Verdasco. When he went on court in the early evening, it was actually the 20-year-old Raonic's third warmup of the day. His match the previous day against Gilles Simon of France had been halted by darkness in the first set, and when they resumed early Saturday, it was briefly stopped by rain.

Raonic got past the No. 22 ranked Simon to face Verdasco, who also had to play his second match of the day. On serve at 3-2 for Verdasco, Raonic asked for the ATP trainer and appeared to get a vigorous shoulder/back massage to loosen him up.

The match resumed, and at 5-4 Verdasco, Raonic faced a break point on his serve that would cost him the first set if he lost it. He did, and then walked over to the umpire and packed it in for the day.

He looked fine, was serving big and seemingly moving well, not bleeding or limping or cramping or favouring his shoulder. Perhaps it was an old injury he didn't want to irritate, or perhaps this just wasn't a big enough event - one of three ATP tourneys this week - for him to risk something that just wasn't feeling right.

So he retired, allowing Verdasco a pass through to the final against Juan Martin del Potro.

As Raonic left the court, he heard it from more than a few fans in the non-sellout crowd who were disappointed that instead of receiving at least one more set of tennis entertainment the match was over.

Could Raonic have played on? Again, there was no obvious sign of physical distress, but he did miss time earlier this season with a shoulder problem. Still,if this was a Grand Slam event, you have to guess he would have tried to play through the injury. Still, just getting through to the semifinals and past a tough veteran like Simon will likely see Raonic's ranking improve next week.

His retirement from the Verdasco match, meanwhile, is what you see on a regular basis in the tennis world. It's a rip-off for the fans and bad for competition, but by the same token, the physical demands of the players on a tour that refuses to limit itself to a logical number of tournaments is heavy. Players have to watch out for themselves because the tour doesn't. It just wants them to play as often as humanly possible.

So players have to gauge what events matter the most, and when they have to conserve themselves and protect themselves against injury that would knock them out of action for weeks or longer.

But it's still disappointing when you see it happen.

 

 

Comments

[Mike Quinlan]

What a ridiculous comparison. One is a team sport where supposidely individual concerns are set aside for the good of the team, even if the motivation to hide injuries may not always be in the best interest of the team. In a tennis if you cannot offer your best in competition its actually a show of disrespect for your opponent. Sorry for the fans but there is no point hurting oneself just to put on a bad show.

[80s Leafs]

Disappointing to hear. It does make you immediately want to throw the "quitter" handle at big Milos. At the same time, pro tennis players and golfers treat the majors as their playoffs nowadays, so only fight through injury for those tourneys, it seems.
Yet I don't recall Johnny Mac, Jimbo, Lendl, etc pulling out of the lesser events like that when they had niggling injuries, back in the day. They played through it.

[Darryl]

No point in pushing it too hard. Guy's only 20 and to do serious damage for something other than a big 4 doesn't make sense. Perhaps either the fans or the players/coaches will complain enough to change the system so that it doesn't wear players out so much.

[Actual Tennis Fan]

Damien - you failed to mention that the overwhelming majority of NHL players are signed to multi year contracts. Professional tennis players play each week for their earnings meaning that if they play through injuries, they risk lengthy lay-offs and no earnings.

[Mike Quinlan]

Damian what a crock. Milos gutted it out for a set. This is not a team sport; there is no ethic of playing injured for the team. Why would you even want to watch the inevitable beating of someone losing because of injury. Where is the respect for the opponent , which involves bringing your best to the table?
What is disapointing is your analysis of Roanic's actions and your seeming contention that an athlete should compromise his health and carreer to satisfy the unthinking desires of a crowd.

[Duke]

the huge difference here, as someone has already pointed out, is that athletes in 'team sports' generally have guaranteed contracts (sometimes for several years) so if they get injured, they still get paid. in tennis, you only get paid if you play, and you really only get paid if you win at least a few rounds. so trying to play through an injury makes no sense and is actually a huge risk. take a look at fellow canucks frank dancevic and aleksandra wozniak. they both were ranked fairly high a couple years ago (about 65 and 22) and both suffered injuries and now they are either still rehabbing, or playing challengers for little money. in tennis you don't have any teamates to fall back on, so you have to look out for yourself first. smart move by milos.