Former world No. 3 and Canadian tennis star Raonic announces retirement

On January 12th Beijing time, former world No. 3 and Canadian tennis star Raonic announced his retirement on personal social media. He reached the Wimbledon men’s singles final in 2016, where he was runner-up after losing to Murray.

Raonic posted on his personal social media

At 35 years old, he wrote on social media, "The time has come, I am retiring from tennis. This day was inevitable, yet I never felt fully prepared. However, at this moment, I feel the most ready I have ever been. Tennis has been my passion and obsession for most of my life. I consider myself the luckiest person in the world to have achieved and lived my dream. Every day I focused on improving myself and exploring where tennis could take me. Tennis was a sport I stumbled upon by chance at age eight, but that coincidence turned into a lifelong obsession, shaping my childhood, career, and life."

Throughout his career, Raonic won a total of 8 tour titles. The year 2016 marked the peak of his career when he defeated Federer in the Wimbledon semifinals to reach his first Grand Slam final. That same year, he also reached the semifinals at the Australian Open and ATP Finals, and made it to the final of the Indian Wells Masters.

Raonic’s most recent competition was the 2024 Paris Olympics, where he lost in the first round of the men’s singles to German player Koepfer with a score of 7-6(2), 6-7(5), 6-7(1).

(Text and editing by Wang Fei, photos courtesy of Visual China)