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BARCLAYS ATP WORLD TOUR FINALSNovember 13, 2014Milos RaonicLONDON, ENGLAND THE MODERATOR: Unfortunately Milos has to pull out of his last match of the ATP World Tour Finals because of an injury. He's going to be replaced by David Ferrer. Milos will explain shortly now what the injury is, then we'll open it up to questions. MILOS RAONIC: It was just something I sustained during my last match. Through extensive sort of research with the doctor's team here, we found that I have a slight tear on the vastus medialis on my quad. Just a large area of swelling, about five centimeters long, three centimeters wide, and one centimeter deep of swelling and bleeding. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. Obviously a huge disappointment for you to end this way. Can you try and sum up your whole London experience and your whole year for us. MILOS RAONIC: Yeah, obviously right now you'll hear a little bit more of pessimism on things just because of the decision I've had to make. I've had a great time here. It's been a great experience, very different from the one I had last year as an alternate. I was fortunate to have been able to play well the last tournament of the year to give myself an opportunity here to sort of feel this through, have this experience. It motivates me a lot to come here next year, do what I can, do better than I did. I felt I did pretty well, but I always felt like I could do significantly better than I had. I'm happy with that. The year was consistent. I wish I would have had a few more breakthrough moments throughout the year, but I feel like I did a good job in giving myself an opportunity to do well and to pretty much play every weekend of the big tournaments that I entered in. So I'm happy with that. I know that's only going to get better. Q. You said it happened in the previous match. Did you know specifically when in that match it happened? MILOS RAONIC: It happened towards the end of the first set. To be honest, it originally felt like cramping. But then I only had more of an idea of what it was when I sat down on the changeover and had to stand up. That's when I could feel there was something that wasn't necessarily a cramp. Q. Can you talk about the rivalry with Kei Nishikori. You were supposed to play today. MILOS RAONIC: Yeah, we've had a lot of good matches. He's got an opportunity to move on beyond the group stage now. But from my understanding, I'm not exactly sure how it works, everybody's got a live shot as well right now. So this match is going to play a significant part. I wish I could have competed in it. But it is what it is. I had to understand that as badly as I wanted to play, a lot of it, especially at this event, is with such strict top competition, it's about being at the top of your game. I couldn't be close to that today. It would be unfair towards the fans if I was to step out there and either play a mediocre match all the way through or if things got worse I had to stop. That was definitely an important key to it. Q. Can you detail the prognosis as far as the injury itself? Is this preventive for you not playing today, and looking ahead to the off‑season and January? MILOS RAONIC: Well, what I was consistently told with this is if I was to step out on court, I'd sort of be walking a tightrope where I can play obviously not at 100%, but with a significant risk of losing up to six to eight weeks if things go badly. So losing six to eight weeks of solely rehab sort of means you lose 12 weeks of getting back into shape and everything, those are definitely significant factors in my decision. At some points I didn't want to accept it and listen to it. But it is what it is. I, alongside my team, all the staff with the ATP, made the best decision I believe. Q. To what extent is your rise, your presence here this week, semifinal at Wimbledon, generating real interest in tennis in Canada? MILOS RAONIC: I think it's grown significantly. I think participation numbers are up significantly. The desire to watch tennis, to follow tennis has grown significantly. They've shown that in numbers. Actually, we are able to make significant impacts on markets in Canada that really don't have many opportunities to see tennis when we travel for Davis Cup and so forth. The outcome has been amazing. I think every good result is just sort of building on that and helping it grow. Q. Could you talk when exactly did you decide to pull out? Did you talk to Kei after you decided to pull out? MILOS RAONIC: I didn't have a chance to speak to Kei. I decided maybe 10 minutes ago, shortly before I came up here. The only person I really had a chance to talk to was David, just to let him know he would be playing. That's pretty much it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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