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THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 11, 2018

Milos Raonic

Wimbledon, London, England

J. ISNER/M. Raonic

6-7, 7-6, 6-4, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. I don't know what to ask because it's pretty disappointing for you. When did you start feeling the thigh or whatever it was?
MILOS RAONIC: Service game and a half before I called for the trainer.

Q. What did it feel like?
MILOS RAONIC: It feels like a tear of the muscle. I don't know to what extent. That's sort of the sensation I had.

Q. Obviously pretty competitive match. We talked about the match before. A lot of service holds. Anything surprise you about this match, anything unexpected about how it played out?
MILOS RAONIC: No, I think it was pretty by the script. There wasn't many chances. As long as I could hold it, I tried to. Just sort of kept slipping away from me slowly.

Q. Was there a point when you knew there was a point of no return, either the third or fourth sets?
MILOS RAONIC: When I got back down a break in the fourth. Before that, I can hope to hold, try to put a few things here together, play maybe a good return point or two in the tiebreak, maybe take care of my serve.

But just once I got behind a break, it was going to be tough.

Q. What did it bother you the most on?
MILOS RAONIC: Serving.

Q. Did it affect you up at net?
MILOS RAONIC: Well, any time I got low. There wasn't much going on from the baseline or at the net. It was only going down for one shot. To sort of transfer the weight, to be able to jump to my serve, because I was doing that every single point I was serving, was the toughest part.

Q. Were you aware of the sparsity of the crowd after Roger's loss, the World Cup?
MILOS RAONIC: I noticed it, but I don't think it felt really necessarily -- it wasn't like an overpowering feeling that you really noticed. I noticed it because sort of -- yeah, I looked up and saw it a few times.

Q. Long wait for you to get on court. How did that affect you? Also seeing the result, knowing that Federer was out of the draw?
MILOS RAONIC: No, I don't think it really makes any difference. Well, the waiting, you warm up when you see -- you're pretty warm when you see Roger has that match point because you can be on in two, three minutes pretty quickly after.

That was the only time I really had to warm up. Maybe a little bit when I think he had that Love-40 game in the fourth, as well, in case he breaks there. Just had to warm up twice and sort of stop. That was really the only thing.

I don't think the result made any difference. Obviously you want it just as bad regardless each way. Maybe you see it more as an opening. But there was a difficult task ahead of me. I don't think I was looking past that.

Q. It was a pretty cool day yesterday. You had the leggings on in the practice court. Any thought of wearing them today? Would you have been able to?
MILOS RAONIC: No, there wasn't. It was considerably warmer today. It was a nice day. I warmed up without them. I don't know what the rule is on them. I don't think it would be an issue.

I was surprised, they've shown more lenience with the rule so far from what I've noticed. I don't think they would be an issue.

Q. John broke through and reached a semi for the first time in his 41st major. Do you feel your day is coming at this place, given how many times you've knocked on the door, how much time you have left to play?
MILOS RAONIC: That's what I work for, yeah. That's what I put in the efforts and the sacrifices, the sweat, the frustrations, and all the good things. And I have fun doing it, that's for sure. That's what I do it for, to have that opportunity, and hopefully make something out of it.

Q. Anything you thought he did particularly well, surprised you about his play today?
MILOS RAONIC: I knew he's been serving really well. I think after the first set, something, I only had, like, five or six second serves to look at in that first set. I didn't have many chances. He's serving a high first-serve percentage. But John definitely knows how to do that, so...

Wasn't necessarily anything overly surprising. He's been quite disciplined when he's come forward. I also saw he's been doing that much better over the last weeks and months.

Q. Until this happened today, do you think you played at the highest level you ever have on grass this year?
MILOS RAONIC: Uhm, tennis-wise as a player, yes. But I think I struggled with a few things mentally just because I haven't had matches. There wasn't that sort of ease. I sort of really had to be disciplined, push through because there wasn't that ease, comfort of having played a lot of matches and dealt with a lot of different situations over the recent period of time.

I think other than that I had to be a bit more demanding of myself. I think I played pretty well.

Q. Any idea if it's nothing too serious what the plans would be for the next few weeks?
MILOS RAONIC: My schedule has been, the next tournament will be in Toronto.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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