More injury woe for Raonic
Originally published on 05/10/17 00:00
The three-time finalist, participating in his first tournament in seven weeks after undergoing surgery on his left wrist, was forced to retire after just eight minutes of his second round clash with Yuichi Sugita.
The Canadian tweaked his right calf in the early stages and was forced to traipse to the net and concede defeat to his Japanese opponent. It’s been an injury-hit campaign for the former world No.3 and his dwindling hopes of qualifying for London are fading fast.
"I picked up a strain to the calf. It's hard to know the extent of it," said Raonic. "It happened when the score was deuce, I felt a sharp pain at the back of my leg. I will head home now and get medical attention."
Elsewhere on the grounds, Richard Gasquet recorded an encouraging 6-0 7-6(5) win over Yen-Hsun Lu, David Goffin was pushed to the brink by Matthew Ebden but prevailed 2-6 7-5 7-6(1) and Steve Johnson, who upset Dominic Thiem in the first round, dispatched Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-2 6-4.
Rafael Nadal stretched his winning run to nine matches as he enjoyed a comfortable 6-3 6-3 success over Karen Khachanov at the second round stage of the China Open in Beijing.
The Spaniard will face John Isner in the last eight on Friday. The American was in fine form as he thrashed Leonardo Mayer 6-0 6-3 in just 58 minutes.
The scoreline suggests a routine victory for the world No.1 however he did encounter difficulties on serve and was forced to save a total of six-break points.
Khachanov will be particularly frustrated that he failed to capitalise on a 0-40 situation on his rival’s serve in the first game of the contest. Nadal was forced to withstand some heavy blows before sealing victory and he was content with his afternoon’s work.
"I’m happy about the match today," remarked the top seed. "I think I played a solid match. Tomorrow will be a tough one against Isner – he's playing unbelievably well. I saw his match today. He played huge, so let's see what's going on tomorrow."
Andrey Rublev, who impressed in his run to the quarter-finals of the US Open, claimed another scalp by defeating Tomas Berdych 1-6 6-4 6-1. The teenager will await the winner of the Alexander Zverev versus Fabio Fognini match.
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