Raonic begs off from IPTL

MANILA, Philippines - In a major setback to the Philippines’ hopes to win the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) title this season, Category A player Milos Raonic has withdrawn from the Mavericks to rest his aching back on doctors’ orders.

Raonic told Mavericks co-owner Jean Henri Lhuillier the other night that he’ll skip the remaining three legs of the IPTL tour in New Delhi on Dec. 10-12, Dubai on Dec. 14-16 and Singapore on Dec. 18-20.

“It’s a big blow considering that Milos was probably the MVP of the Manila leg,” said Lhuillier who co-owns the IPTL Philippine franchise with SM Prime Holdings president Hans Sy, philstar.com president Kevin Belmonte, businessman Haresh Hiranand and banker Balaji Swaminathan through Match Point International Tennis Events, Inc. “At the moment, we’re not thinking of a replacement. We’ve got Richard Gasquet and Edouard Roger Vasselin who are both capable singles players ready to step up. Milos has been troubled by back spasms and getting therapy. The recommendation is complete rest to be prepared for next year. He would’ve wanted to continue but Milos is out of the IPTL for the rest of the season as his doctors insist on total rest.”

Despite his back issues, Raonic was unbeaten in the Manila leg, beating Tomas Berdych, 6-4, in the Mavericks’ 29-18 win over the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Royals then teaming up with Serena Williams to repulse Pierre Hugues Herbert and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, 6-4 in the Philippines’ 25-21 victory over Japan and capping the home team’s 25-24 squeaker over India with a 6-5 (7-6) decision over Rafael Nadal.

In the Japan leg last week, Raonic lost a 6-4 set to Nick Kyrgios in Singapore’s 26-24 win over the Mavericks but came back to beat Kei Nishikori, 6-5, in the Philippines’ 28-24 thriller over the Warriors.

Raonic, 24, is known for his rocket-like serve which World No. 1 Novak Djokovic once described as “very powerful” and “one of the best in the game today.” Last May, he was ranked World No. 4 but has since slipped to No. 14. Raonic has reached the semifinals at Wimbledon and quarterfinals at the Australian and French Opens but is still chasing his first Grand Slam crown. He has bankrolled over $8.7 Million in career earnings with seven singles titles. Raonic was born in Montenegro, moved to Canada when he was three and now lives in Monte Carlo.

Raonic’s withdrawal was a damper as the Mavericks are a whisker away from first place in the IPTL standings after two legs. India tops the ladder with a win-loss ratio of 54.36 percent on 106 games won and 89 lost in a 3-1 match count. The Mavericks are a close second with 53.69 percent on 131 games won and 113 lost in a 4-1 match tally. UAE is third with 50.21 percent, Singapore fourth with 49.38 percent and Japan fifth with 43.15 percent.

Lhuillier said he is opposing a proposed IPTL move to drop a match involving the Royals. In the IPTL schedule, four teams are playing 11 ties each but UAE has 12 matches. The problem is if the IPTL drops the UAE’s schedule to 11 matches, it will mean cutting back the matches of one of the four other teams from 11 to 10.

“Our standings are statistics-driven,” said Lhuillier. “We’re considering only the win-loss ratio of games. I think we should just retain the schedule. Right now, India is on top of the standings but they’ve played only four matches and we’ve already played five. The system is different from last year when a team got four points for winning a match then a losing team earned two points if it won at least 20 games and one point if it won no less than 10 games and no more than 20. At the end of the round robin, the team with the most points, India, was declared the champion. But that was a bit anti-climactic. Now, we’re giving value to the last day of the competition because the top two placers go up against each other in the final.”

Lhuillier said the franchise owners are committed to stay with the IPTL for 10 years. “No doubt, the IPTL is a wonderful idea,” he said. “(IPTL founder) Mahesh (Bhupathi) wants to grow the league. He hasn’t exactly expounded on how he intends the league to grow. In my mind, playing five legs may be too taxing for the players going from one country to the other. Maybe, if we expand to more teams, we could break up the league into two brackets and just do four legs so we cut on travel time and don’t make it too tiring for the players.”

Lhuillier said Williams was a huge inspiration to the Mavericks in sweeping the Manila leg. “She was contracted to play three days and was extremely focused,” said Lhuillier. “On the morning of the last day of play, she was on the court practicing for an hour and 15 to 20 minutes. Remember, Serena hadn’t played since the US Open so she was out of action for a few months. I thought she was the most accommodating player in the entire leg. She was pleasant and warm. During the competition, she really pumped up the team.”