Milos Raonic set for comeback, confirms participation in Libema Open

Canadian tennis player Milos Raonic is all set to make a comeback to the Tour after confirming his participation at the Libema Open.

Raonic has had his share of injuries and was last seen on the ATP tour in July 2021. His last competitive appearance was at the 2021 Atlanta Open, where he was the top seed, but he lost to Brandon Nakashima in three sets in the round of 16.

It will be close to two years since Raonic has played competitive tennis and the Libema Open, also known as the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships, will be the Canadian's best chance to gauge his level on the tour.

The tournament will be played in Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, from June 10 to 18 and Milos Raonic will be using his protected ranking of 33 to compete in the tournament.

Daniil Medvedev is the highest-ranked player to participate in the ATP-250 tournament and he will be joined by World No. 10 Felix Auger-Aliassime, Borna Coric (ranked 16), Alex de Minaur (ranked 18), and Marin Cilic (ranked 23).

Pablo Carreno Busta, Roberto Bautista Agut and Botic van de Zandschulp are some of the other players from the top 30 to be taking part at the Libema Open.

Sweden's Mikael Ymer, who is ranked 52, is the last player to feature in the main draw on the basis of world ranking. The defending champion, Tim van Rijthoven, who is ranked 154 in the world, has been given a wildcard for the main draw.

Two more wildcards, four qualifiers and two special exempts will compete in the main draw of the Libema Open.

---

Milos Raonic battling with injuries

Milos Raonic at the Atlanta Open in 2021.

Milos Raonic has had his share of injuries that played spoilsport just at the time when he was peaking. The Canadian's last tournament was the Atlanta Open in 2021 and he was, in fact, making a comeback in Atlanta post a series of injury breaks.

The Canadian, who achieved his highest world ranking of 3, broke into the top 20 for the first time in 2012 after winning the Chennai Open and the Pacific Coast Championships.

He was also in the news the same year for taking the first set against Roger Federer at the Indian Wells Masters, the Madrid Open, and the Halle Open.

Milos Raonic became the first Canadian to break into the top 10 of the ATP singles rankings and also entered the record books as the first Canadian male to reach the Wimbledon final, in the open era, in 2016.

However, he could not match his prowess in the next few years and endured a long slump post-2017, although he progressed to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in 2019 and 2020.

Pegged back by calf and right leg injuries, Milos Raonic has struggled to consistently replicate the kind of form he displayed between 2014 and 2016.