Milos Raonic has withdrawn from his second round clash with Roger Federer in Paris after suffering an elbow injury as Alexander Zverev makes the third round.
The Canadian is clearly suffering the effects of an epic battle with Jo-Wilfred Tsonga in the first round after revealing today he suffered an elbow injury.
As a result of the injury, Raonic has pulled out of his second round match with 20 time grand slam champion Roger Federer and given the Swiss a walkover into the third round.
“Yeah. Yesterday, in the long match with Jo, in the middle of second set, I overextended my elbow and it did some kind of pain,” said Raonic.
“Preceding the match, after I spoke with the doctors here, I went and I did an ultrasound and MRI, and they found some kind of a lesion in the tricep. And after that, it presented me with only this option, the risk being too high and the hindrance on my play being too high as well.”
The week in Paris sums up the Canadian’s season as he has had many big wins but too many injuries stopping any significant progress.
As for Federer he has an extra day to recover from his title win in Basel and will now play either Fabio Fognini or Marton Fucsovics in the third round on Thursday.
Zverev and Dimitrov Advance
In other action today both Alexander Zverev and Grigor Dimitrov progressed to the third round after straight sets wins.
Starting with Zverev, he gained a complicated 6-4 6-4 victory over Frances Tiafoe which sealed the German’s 30th hard court victory of 2018.
The American will be regretting wasting the seven break point opportunities in the first set as Zverev broke him four times to seal his progression into the third round. The fourth seed will now play Diego Schwartzman or Feliciano Lopez tomorrow.
As for Dimitrov, he was able to beat a gritty Roberto Bautista Agut 7-6(10) 6-4 to reach the last 16. The Bulgarian, who is working with Andre Agassi this week, won a very tight opening set and was seemingly cruising at 4-1 in the second set.
Despite Bautista Agut levelling the set at 4-4, the 9th seed won the next two games to seal victory. It’s a big week for the 27 year-old who will lose 1,500 points next week as he won’t defend his ATP Finals title in London this year.
Dimitrov will now play Marin Cilic in a blockbuster contest tomorrow.
