Milos Raonic pulls out from the event; Andy Murray advances – Sony Ericsson Open 2012
Seeded 26th in this Masters 1000 event, Milos Raonic was forced to withdraw due to a right ankle injury at the Sony Ericsson Open 2012 on Sunday. As a result, the 2009 champion, Andy Murray, advanced into the fourth round without hitting a ball.
The booming Canadian was scheduled to face Murray for the first time at this hard court tournament taking place at Key Biscayne in Miami. However, on his return from the practice session, Raonic sprained his ankle and exited from the tournament without playing
his third round match.
"Yesterday, at the end of practice, we finished doing an hour long practice, and I was just moving back and I rolled over my ankle and ended up spraining it," explained the Canadian youngster.
Raonic, who is just 21-year-old, was on fire this circuit. He captured his second career title at the Aircel Chennai Open where he stunned the top two seeds, Janko Tipsarevic and Nicolas Almagro, to earn the spotlight. Despite bowing out to Lleyton Hewitt
in the third round of the Australian Open, the Canadian went on a nine-game rampage. His impressive run of form led him clinch his second year-to-date title at the SAP Open in San Jose and a final showdown at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in Memphis.
The high flying youngster maintained his intensity on these Floridian hard courts and stomped over the French qualifier, Arnaud Clement, in straight sets in his opening round match.
The fourth seeded Scot on the other end automatically entered the pre-quarters where he will confront Gilles Simon of France. The 13th seed brushed off early resistance to outrun the Austrian number one, Jurgen Melzer, in one hour and 38 minutes.
Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic will accompany Raonic towards the exit doors. The world number seven broke Grigor Dimitrov’s serve twice but got broken down twice, eventually suffering a 3-6, 6-2, 4-6 loss. Berdych clobbered a better first serve share and
committed fewer unforced errors. However, he squandered three break opportunities in the final set, consequently suffering a 4-6 shock.
The Bulgarian will next face ninth seeded Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia.
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