Milos Raonic will not play any tournament before the 2024 Australian Open, as he withdrew from his first ATP event of the year.
After being away from professional tennis for nearly two years, the tall Canadian returned to competition this year in 's-Hertogenbosch, and it was a really good comeback.
In his first match in almost two years, Raonic bested Serbia's Miomir Kecmanovic before losing in his second match to Jordan Thompson.
He was then forced to withdraw from the Queen's Club, but after that, the Canadian made his first appearance at Wimbledon since 2019, beating Austria's Dennis Novak in the first round before losing to Tommy Paul in four sets.
He then received a wild card for his home event in Toronto, which was a real success for the Canadian. Raonic made it to the third round, but he was stopped by Mackenzie McDonald.
After that, he was forced to withdraw from a few more tournaments, but things looked good again at the Davis Cup Finals when he started Canada's title defense with an impressive win.
However, now it seems that Raonic is struggling with some kind of injury again, as he withdrew from the 2024 Hong Kong Open, running from January 1st to 7th.
Yet, the withdrawal may still be to save his protected ranking, as players get that only for a certain number of tournaments, and using it for an ATP 250 event may not be the best decision for the Canadian.
He has entered the 2024 Australian Open using his protected ranking, and we won't know what's the state of his injury until he provides any kind of statement, or follows with the Australian Open withdrawal.
For now, there can be only speculations about Raonic's fitness, but the fact is that he won five of nine matches that he played in 2023, showing he still belongs to the ATP Tour.
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