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BARCLAYS ATP WORLD TOUR FINALS

November 13, 2016

Milos Raonic

London, England, United Kingdom

M. RAONIC/G. Monfils

6-3, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Was this the perfect start for the tournament for you?
MILOS RAONIC: Yeah, pretty much. I gave myself a lot of opportunities. I played well. I took care of my serve very efficiently. All those things came together nicely.

I competed well, had a good attitude, hit the ball pretty well as well.

Q. How did you pull up in terms of the injury? You looked to be moving pretty well.
MILOS RAONIC: Maybe I hesitated a little bit a few times, especially on the longer runs. I don't think about it too much. That's something very fortunate.

I hope that I can get rid of those hesitations as the days go on.

Q. Is it the lateral movement, is that what causes you the issue?
MILOS RAONIC: No, it's the frontal. Lateral, just the way the muscles are set up, it's different muscles working. It's the frontal, especially when I have time to take longer steps. If it's smaller steps, it's not too much of an issue.

Q. From the outside it looked like you had no problem at all physically. You said that you just started running a couple days ago. First of all, was it true that you had no problem, that you didn't feel any pain? Did you expect this kind of performance after having started to run only just a few days ago?
MILOS RAONIC: Yeah, I didn't feel any pain to the injury I had. I think other muscles might be overworking to maybe compensate for that. I can feel them a little bit more fatigued and sore than they normally would be.

But the injury is good. I feel like this is an ideal way to start considering the doubts that I was having. Some of the things I heard in the diagnosis were not the most positive, so this was a great way to turn around.

Q. Have your expectations of what you can achieve in this tournament changed now on the basis of this match?
MILOS RAONIC: No, I don't think the expectations of what I can achieve have changed. I think the only thing that has changed is can I get through a match.

Q. How do you feel the court is playing? Is it faster? Does it match Paris?
MILOS RAONIC: It's not as quick as Paris, that's for sure. I don't know how it's playing. Obviously I wasn't here last year. Compared to two years ago, I feel like the court might be a bit quicker, but I feel like the balls we are playing with are quite a bit slower. I don't know how that is reflecting.

I think when you hit flat through the court, it does go through. Since the balls are quite heavy, if you start to hit spins, it does sit up more rather than skid through. It sort of benefits you if you try to flatten it out through the court.

Q. How close were you to withdraw from this tournament after what happened in Paris, when you arrived in Toronto and had the diagnosis?
MILOS RAONIC: I don't think I really was that close because I knew when I landed in Toronto, I knew I had that flight back. I was going to try. The only thing that would have told me that I would not be able to play is if I was not either able to warm up today or something significantly worse yesterday. I was going to leave it to that point no matter how poor I was feeling. I really wanted to give myself the best chance possible to play here.

Q. If that was a nice start, but the next one is Djokovic. No disrespect to Gael, but it's a step up.
MILOS RAONIC: It is. I watched a little bit of his match today. He was very commanding towards the end of his match. He really stepped up after a difficult, slow start.

It's going to be a difficult task that I have ahead of me. I feel like I'm doing some things well. I feel like I can do some things better.

I was quite proficient on returning today. I took care of my serve like I hoped to. That's what my game depends on. I hope I can keep moving forward.

Q. Considering how old you are, and how young you are, how much does it bother you the fact that we keep asking you and talking about your injuries since quite a while? It's something that you're used to, you don't care?
MILOS RAONIC: I care that I get hurt. I don't care if anybody asks me about it. If you guys want to ask me about injuries that I don't have, I'm happy with that. But if I have the injuries, I'm more pissed off about that than talking about something imaginary.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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