It has certainly been a tempestuous week for Milos Raonic in London. The Canadian No. 1 accomplished one his greatest achievements when he qualified for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals for the first time in his young career. However, Raonic was unable to make his mark on the year-end championships and eventually went 0-2 during the first for days of the competition.

Then, ahead of his third and final round robin match at the O2 Arena, Raonic abruptly withdrew from the contest a mere few hours ahead of the match, thus brining in WTF alternate David Ferrer to contest the match-up against Nishikori. His reason for his late withdrawal from the event was that doctors had determined that the Canadian had suffered a low grade tear in his right quad.

“Through extensive sort of research with the doctor’s team here, we found that I have a slight tear on the vastus medialis on my quad,” Raonic said. “Just a large area of swelling, about five centimeters long, three centimeters wide, and one centimeter deep of swelling and bleeding.”

The decision to end his season prematurely was a simple one for Raonic, who revealed that a rash choice to risk playing the match could have forced him on the sidelines for 6-8 weeks.

“If I was to step out on court, I’d sort of be walking a tightrope where I can play obviously not at 100 percent, but with a significant risk of losing up to six to eight weeks if things go badly,” he said. “So losing six to eight weeks of solely rehab, sort of means you lose 12 weeks of getting back into shape and everything, those are definitely significant factors in my decision. At some points I didn’t want to accept it and listen to it. But it is what it is. I, alongside my team, all the staff with the ATP, made the best decision I believe.”