Aug 6, 2024; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Milos Raonic (CAN) gives a press conference to announce he is pulling out of the tournament at IGA Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 12 (Reuters) - Canada's former world number three Milos Raonic announced his retirement from tennis at the age of 35 on Sunday after winning eight ATP tour titles and more than $20 million in prize money over a decade and a half on the circuit.
Notable for a powerful serve which earned him the nickname "Missile", Raonic's career peaked in 2016 when he reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open and the final at Wimbledon, losing to Andy Murray in both contests.
"This is a moment you know will come one day, but somehow you never feel ready for it. This is as ready as I will ever be. Tennis has been my love and obsession for most of my life," Raonic wrote in a post on social media platform X.
"I have been the luckiest person to get to live out and fulfil my dreams. I got to show up every day and focus on just getting better, seeing where that will take me."
Born in former Yugoslavia during the violent breakup of the country in the early 1990s, Raonic and his family moved to Canada when he was three.
He turned professional in 2008 and won his first ATP title at the Pacific Coast Championships three years later, beating Fernando Verdasco in the final.
Raonic played in four Masters 1000 finals from 2013 to 2020 and lost them all, the first at the Canadian Open to Rafa Nadal and the other three to Novak Djokovic.
His loss to Djokovic at the 2020 Cincinnati Masters was his last trip to an ATP final and his last tour-level event was his first-round loss to German Dominik Koepfer at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
"What's next? I won't be slowing down," Raonic added in his social media post.
"There is so much more life to live, and I am as motivated and hungry as I was in 2011, when I broke through on tour."
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Peter Rutherford)
