Sock Handed ATP Delray Title After Raonic Withdrawal

No. 3 seed Jack Sock was handed the Delray Beach Open title, his second title of the season, on Sunday when top-seeded Milos Raonic withdrew before taking the court citing a hamstring tear in his right leg.
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“It’s very unfortunate for him and I hope he has a speedy recovery,” Sock said. “We’ve had a lot of good battles and I was looking forward to the challenge. I’d be a little more excited and full of energy if I had gone out and won it on court, but on the flip side, a title is a title.”

Sock in January won his first title of the season at the ASB Classic.

The American in the semifinals defeated fellow American Donald Young, and Raonic showed no ill effects in defeating Juan Martin del Potro.

“I’m sure Milos would have loved to play, but you’ve got to look ahead with some big tournaments coming up,” said Sock, who improved to an 11-1 win-loss record and will move to a career-high rank of No. 18. “If you try to play with something that’s tweaked or a little hurt, it can only get worse. I can speak from surgery that I had a few years ago with my pelvis. I played on it for five extra weeks and tore it completely.”

Raonic said he injured the hamstring chasing down a dropshot against Del Potro in the second set of their semifinal.

“I thought it might just be wear and tear, but I woke up this morning not really able to walk,” Raonic said. “We did about two hours of therapy this morning trying to calm it down and saw it wasn’t making much progress, so we came to the conclusion it was a hamstring strain.”

It has been an injury-filled season thus far for the big Canadian, who dealt with adductor injuries in January.

“I’ve been unfortunate with injuries and have been doing everything I can to prevent them,” he said. “It’s been three tournaments in a row where I’ve sustained some sort of muscle damage. And it’s disappointing for the sole fact that you’re one match away from a title. It’s not easy to accept.”

Both players are scheduled to play at the ATP event in Acapulco beginning Monday.