Raonic endures ‘most difficult’ withdrawal after…

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The last time Milos Raonic was due to face Holger Rune, he had to withdraw. The same thing happened Tuesday at the National Bank Open presented by Rogers and the oft-injured Raonic isn’t sure if he will ever play in Montreal again.

A press conference with Raonic was announced about half-an-hour before he was due to take to the court, a sure-fire indication he wouldn’t be able to compete. This time his serving shoulder was the issue, and it left the 33-year-old in an especially gloomy mood.

“I’ve had a lot of moments where I haven’t been able to play but I’d say this is probably the most difficult one,” Raonic told the media. That’s “because I haven’t played here in five years, and I don’t know if I’ll come back to Montreal. You are talking about two years away. It’s just a very shi**y feeling.”

Raonic wasn’t quite sure how the injury surfaced, though he speculated it might be linked to having just played on clay at the Paris Olympics. He had to hit plenty of balls in a loss to Germany’s Dominik Koepfer that featured three tiebreaks — the big serving native of Thornhill, Ont., ripped 29 aces — before contesting the doubles with Félix Auger-Aliassime.

Once in Montreal, Raonic was forced to cancel some practice sessions and things didn’t clear up on game day.

“I tried to warm up for my match,” he said. “The thing that was most difficult was to serve, and I don’t think I would have been able to be competitive by any means. I can manage a lot of things but without serving that would be a tough day for me. I just had pain down my shoulder, and I got to see where it’s at.

“It just wasn’t anywhere close to where it needed to be.”

If the 2016 Wimbledon finalist is indeed unable to play in Montreal again, his last appearance in the city goes down as a retirement loss (back) to Auger-Aliassime in 2019. Fonder memories came in 2013, when Raonic reached his first Masters 1000 final before losing to Rafael Nadal. He wasn’t about to make any forecasts about how long his career will continue.

“All this is happening in the last 48 hours,” said Raonic, who was replaced in the draw by lucky loser Roberto Bautista Agut. “Just trying to be positive about it and not think too far ahead until I have more information. Not to try to skip ahead of anything.”