Australian star Alex De Minaur advanced to the second round at the Australian Open after Milos Raonic was forced to withdraw from the first round match inside Rod Laver Arena.
Raonic, who was playing his 10th tour-level match since coming back from his two-year injury lay-off, won the first set in the tie-break. De Minaur rallied to lead 6-7 (6-8) 6-3 2-0.
Raonic saved a total of three break points in the second and sixth games of the first set.
Raonic left the court for medical treatment on a hip flexor issue while he was leading 5-4 in the first set, , which went on serve with no breaks of serve. Both players traded mini-breaks in the tie-break. Raonic edged out De Minaur 8-6 after saving a set point at 5-6. De Minaur converted his second break point to take a 4-2 lead. The Australian player went up a 40-0 lead, when he was serving for the second set, but Raonic forced the game to deuce. De Minaur served out the second set 6-3 on his fourth set point.
De Minaur went up a 2-0 lead with an early break before Raonic decided to retire from the match.
Raonic returned from a two-year lay-off after rehabbing an Achilles tendon issue and a broken toe. He was playing for the first time at the Australian Open since 2021.
De Minaur will face Matteo Arnaldi in the second round. The Australian player reached the top 10 for the first time after beating Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev and Taylor Fritz at the United Cup earlier this month. De Minaur reached the fourth round at the Australian Open in 2022 and 2023.
“I hope Milos has a speedy recovery. It’s not great to see him like this. He deserves to be healthy and playing the incredible tennis that he has done for so many years. Hopefully he is back in no time”, said De Minaur.
