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ROGERS CUP

August 7, 2019

Milos Raonic

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

F. AUGER-ALIASSIME/M. Raonic

6-3, 3-6 (ret.)

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. We had this conversation in Washington, talked about your back. You were saying it wasn't bad. Is it just a progression of playing more? Update us where the pain is now. Are you feeling it in the leg?
MILOS RAONIC: Yeah, I'm feeling it in the back of the glut. It's progressed more than it was in Washington. Felt good in the first match. It wasn't that taxing of a match.

Started having pains during the night last night. Yeah, it's hard to pinpoint exactly what it is at this point.

Q. When in this match did you start feeling the pain accelerate? Will it hinder your participation in Cincinnati or the US Open?
MILOS RAONIC: I felt generally sore in my back before the match started, but it wasn't something I was too concerned about. Started sort of going down my leg pretty early into one of my service games.

I think the one game, I don't think I put many first serves in the game, I got broken. I think at that point it started. I started sort of feeling sort of a tweak. That started to progress more and more as the match went on.

Q. Can you put into words the frustration of this, the whole season, with the injuries you've experienced.
MILOS RAONIC: Well, last 30 minutes of that match, just because of the situation we're playing in, being prime time night match here in Montreal, was probably the least enjoyable 30 minutes I've spent on a tennis court.

But, you know, I just keep trying to pinpoint, figure out what the right step is. I keep getting assured there's nothing extensively serious about the back in that sense. I feel like I just try to adjust the exercises I do with the trainings. Hopefully I can sort of figure it out.

Nobody's been telling me there's a reason for me not to be playing right now or to be fearing some serious, serious risk. Today was more painful than it's been in quite a long time. It's too late tonight, but I'll do some more tests tomorrow, sort of assess it from there.

It hasn't necessarily been the most enjoyable season so far.

Q. What did you think of Felix's game tonight?
MILOS RAONIC: I thought he did some things well. You could see he was trying to be the aggressor. I thought he served quite well. There were a few games he had a little bit of lapses on. To break in the second set, I don't think I necessarily played miraculously better. I think he sort of had a little bit of a lapse there.

I think he's on the right track.

Q. Have you had MRIs? How recently and how many would you have had checking into this problem?
MILOS RAONIC: I think I've had four this year on my back. As recently as before Queen's, yeah. More than enough, let's say.

Q. You played well for the remainder of the second set once you had the timeout, leveled it up a bit. You looked like you were starting to move well again, then retired. Tell us about the conversations you were having with the trainer at that point. Were they telling you you shouldn't go on, you might cause more damage?
MILOS RAONIC: Nobody could necessarily pinpoint or assure me there was no risk at that point. I don't necessarily think I was playing extremely better. I think Felix sort of dipped a little bit. I just sort of tried to take care of the things I could.

He probably had a pretty good opportunity to break me when he had the three consecutive break chances in that kind of scenario to even it out.

But the thing that was most concerning, it was getting progressively worse. Every changeover, I was coming, sitting down, I was in a worse situation than when I got up preceding those two games.

I had to make that decision. Nobody could assure me that, Hey, you're not risking anything, it's not serious. Nobody could assure me that it was a terrible situation to be in either.

Just the way it was progressing throughout the match, it didn't seem like there were really any other logical decisions. It was going to get worse and worse from what I could assess from how it was going through the first set and a half.

Even if I find a way to get through, which would be extremely tough, who knows what kind of a situation, if I'm even ready to play tomorrow.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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