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By Palm Beach Business Staff
DELRAY BEACH — The curse lives. Jack Sock, the top-ranked American tennis player and the tournament’s No. 3 seed won the singles title at the Delray Beach Open Sunday when No. 1 seed Milos Raonic withdrew because of injury.
No top-seeded player has won Delray since Mardy Fish took the title in 2009. Fish, in fact, is the only No. 1 seed to win Delray in its 25-year history.
At 21, Sock came into tournament as the highest ranked American player in the ATP World Tour standings. He will move up three notches to No. 18 in this week's rankings. Raonic entered play ranked 4th in the world and the highest ranked player ever to appear at Delray Beach.
“Obviously, it’s not ideal,” Sock said. “I’m sure he (Raonic) would have loved to have played, as would I. We always have good battles so I was definitely looking forward to it and excited to play. The flip side of that is a title is a title. Obviously I would be a lot more excited and full of energy if I had gone out and had done it on the court. It’s another title for me and I’ll move on to next week.”
Raonic said he felt some tightening in his right leg as he moved to return a drop shot in Saturday’s match with Juan Martin del Potro. He didn’t think much of it at the time and finished the match. But later he started feeling a sharp pain. When he woke up Sunday morning he couldn’t walk without a limp.
He underwent two hours of physical therapy, which managed to help some but not enough to allow him to play. “When we realized it wasn’t making much progress … we came to the conclusion that it was a slight tear of the hamstring. He said he wouldn't know the extent of the injury until Monday.
Raonic said it was disappointing to be so close to finishing the tournament but also because of his recent history.
“It’s been three tournaments in a row this year that I’ve sustained some sort of muscle damage,” Raonic said. He said it’s possible the injuries are related — he might have returned to play too soon after an abdominal muscle pull sustained during the Australian Open in January.
Raonic said he enjoyed his experience at Delray Beach and would be open to playing here again.
In the doubles competition, second-seeded Rajeev Ram of the United States and Raven Klaasen of South Africa defeated Max Mirnyi of Belorus and Treat Huey of the Philippines 7-5, 7-5. Mirnyi and Huey, the third-seeded team, had a 4-1 lead in the second set but Ram-Klaasen ran off three straight wins to tie the match.
NOTES: Instead of facing Raonic in the singles finals, Sock finished the tournament with a one-set exhibition against former professional player Jesse Levine, who lives in Boca Raton. Levine should keep his Sundays free come tournament time — he subbed for an injured player last Sunday against James Blake in the final match of the ATP Champions Tour competition Delray … This is Sock’s second title at Delray Beach. He teamed with Blake to win the doubles competition in 2013. … Mirnyi has appeared in four doubles finals at Delray, winning two, in 1999 and 2008 and losing in 2013. In each appearance, Mirnyi has had a different partner. … Sock’s win was worth $90,605; Raonic took home $47,715. … Ram and Klaasen’s earnings for the week: $29,010. Ram was a singles finalist in 2015.
