KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. - Canadian Milos Raonic has withdrawn from the Sony Ericsson Open with an ankle injury.
The 21-year-old from Thornhill, Ont., was unable to take the court Sunday against British fourth seed Andy Murray for their third-round match after rolling an ankle during training.
Raonic, however, expects to be ready for his next event in Monte Carlo in April.
"I was just moving back and I rolled over my ankle and ended up spraining it," said Raonic, who consulted his doctor in Spain over the problem and will now spend a few days at home in Canada.
Raonic and doubles partner Kevin Anderson quit their Saturday doubles match after three games when the Canadian could not go on against third seeds Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic, former partner of Toronto's Daniel Nestor.
"I don't know too much about it right now, but in the doubles it wasn't getting better," said Raonic. "This morning it was a bit painful on pretty much every movement. Against the calibre of player I'd be up against, to play at 40 per cent didn't really didn't make much sense.
"The doctor in Spain doesn't think it's anything big. It probably just needs a couple days of rest, but active rest. With treatment and so on, it should be okay within a week or so."
It was Raonic's second injury blow in as many seasons. The 26th seed in Miami was forced to withdraw last summer from Wimbledon in the second round after injuring his hip in a match against Gilles Muller.
Except for one Davis Cup match, Raonic was out of action until October.
"It's frustrating, but you must look at the big picture," said the Canadian with two ATP titles this season. "Everything is going well, obviously it would be more frustrating if things were going poorly.
"Even though if I might have some worries about something, I'm pretty good at coming back pretty quickly."
