Milos Raonic withdrew from the 2024 Wimbledon Championships after failing to secure a main draw wild card entry.
The Canadian hoped to return to Wimbledon this year, where he has traditionally played really well. He made the final in 2016 and hoped to play some more tennis at the grass-court major this year, but it won’t be happening.
Due to not playing a lot of tennis overall, Raonic’s ranking wasn’t good enough to enter the tournament directly. The only way for him to enter the main draw directly was with a wild card, and he didn’t get it.
When Wimbledon announced the players who received wild cards, he was not among them, so that meant he needed to play in the qualifying if he wanted to play at the tournament, where he reached one semi-final and two quarter-finals on top of the final appearance.
It’s a similar situation to Caroline Wozniacki because she didn’t receive a Roland Garros wild card, and because she didn’t get it and didn’t want to play in the qualifying, the Dane ultimately withdrew from the event.
Raonic made a similar decision, even though there may be an underlying physical issue. When it comes to the Canadian, it’s not a shocking decision, considering that he’s been very careful with his schedule this year.
He didn’t really rush to play too many events, but he played recently and did fairly well. The 2024 Libema Open saw him defeat Jordan Thompson, a player who recently bested Holger Rune at the Cinch Championships.
It’s clear that he can do some damage, especially if he can serve the way he did recently when he broke the record for most aces in a single match, but fans won’t get a chance to see that serving masterclass at SW19 this year because of his withdrawal.
