Former world third place in men’s singles Milos Raonic The Canadian announced his retirement from his professional career:

“It’s time. I’m ending my professional tennis career. It’s the moment you know will come one day, but it’s impossible to be truly prepared for it. No matter how ready I am right now. Tennis has been my love and obsession for most of my life.”

I am incredibly lucky to be living and achieving my dreams. I went out on the field every day focused on getting better, seeing where it took me, and playing the game I was introduced to completely by chance when I was eight years old. It somehow became my entire obsession and childhood, and then it turned into my profession and my entire life.

I am grateful to the amazing fans around the world that I have played and trained in front of. They saw me in my best moments on the field and in my hardest moments. They saw me grow. Thank you to everyone who stopped for a moment to watch and support me.

I would like to thank my coaches and my entire team who sacrificed their time with their families and homes to be with me on this path as I pursued my dreams and goals. I am extremely grateful for your mentorship and knowledge.

Thanks to the ATP Tour, ITF and all Grand Slam tournaments. It has been my dream to play in your great tournaments and I have been lucky enough to have this experience with wonderful people who do their best for the beautiful game called tennis.

I would like to thank all my colleagues and competitors. I admired you growing up, I respected you throughout my career, and I will continue to respect you as a fan. Because of you, I have become the best player I can be, a better person, and learned life’s most important lessons while competing with you every week for over twenty years.

Thank you Canada. My family and I came here more than 30 years ago. You made me choose tennis, you changed my family’s life and I enjoyed every moment of being able to represent you all over the world.

Mother, father, Elena and Momir; I am forever grateful to you for often putting your life on hold so that I could have the chance to follow my dreams. All this was only possible thanks to you. Nothing would happen without your constant support, effort and emotional investment. And as happy as I am to have found tennis, it’s nothing compared to how lucky I am to have such parents, a sister and a brother.

I hope to make my wife and son proud every day and be as much a family to them as my family is to me.

A big part of my tennis journey has been the amazing people I’ve been lucky enough to meet from around the world. In many cases, they became mentors who helped me understand the rest of my life. I am grateful for their attention, time and support, which makes the answers to life’s most important questions clearer and more inspiring.

What’s next? I won’t slow down. I still have a lot of life ahead of me and I’m just as motivated and hungry for new goals as I was when I broke through on tour in 2011. I will bring the same dedication and intensity to the next level. “If I can strive for the same level of excellence as in tennis, trying to get better every day, we’ll see where that takes me.”

Milos, 35, has won eight trophies at Tour level. In 2016, she reached the Wimbledon final as well as the semi-finals of the Australian Open and the Finals. Raonic earned $20,764,512 during his career.

Raonic last played in the 2024 Olympics and lost to Dominik Koepfer in the first round.

It’s time to quit tennis. It’s a moment you know will come one day but you just don’t feel ready for it. This is more ready than I will ever be. Tennis has been my love and obsession for most of my life.

I was the luckiest person to experience this…

— Milos Raonic (@milosraonic) January 11, 2026

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Posted by: Milos Raonic (@mraonic)

night of January 18 Australian Open 2026 starts main draw fights.

Especially on Sunday, three teams will play their matches in the 1/64 final. ukrainian women: Elina Svitolina, Marta Kostyuk and Dayana Yastremskaya. Yulia Starodubtseva will hold her first round meeting on Monday, while Angelina Kalinina and Alexandra Oleynikova will hold their first round meeting on Tuesday.

Before the start of the Australian Open, bookmakers also evaluated the chances of the Ukrainians by updating the prices of the tournament favorites. For this reason, Kostyuk closed the top 10 candidates For the cup according to betting companies – 30.60.

Svitolina’s chances are estimated at 64.85. Quotations for Yastremskaya, Kalinina and Oleynikova are above 350.00.

Bookmakers see world number one and current champion Aryna Sabalenka as the main favorite for the Australian major – 2.73. Also in the top 5 are Iga Swiatek (7.18), Elena Rybakina (8.14), Amanda Anisimova (10.83) and Klara Tauson (12.02).

Who will win the Australian Open 2026 cup? Bettors’ opinion

Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina He spoke to reporters before the start of the Australian Open 2026:

About planning off-season workouts: “It’s really about finding the balance. I think over the years my coach, my team and I have found a few little tricks to help us get better. I’m very happy to be able to win in Auckland. It’s a good start, a strong start and hopefully I can use that as a foundation for the future.”

About the start of the Australian Open: “The first round of the Grand Slam tournament is of course very difficult, everyone is as ready as possible and extremely motivated to play well. In the first major everyone wants to show what they have been working on in the off-season and that makes the tournament interesting. That’s why we will see a lot of great matches. For me personally it is important to focus on one match at a time, not to look too far ahead, to recover well, to prepare physically and mentally, then I will have the chance to play at a high level.”

On his confident performance in the finals: “I have built this image and this mentality step by step over the years. It is important. Of course there are many matches to win before the final, but the final is very important and this is where you have to show your best performance in tennis. In moments like these you train and work for. So even if I cannot play my best tennis because of a lot of pressure and responsibility, I try to find my way in the most important moments and the little details that will help, at least fight and find a way to win.”

About joint training with her husband Gael Monfils: “I definitely get very intense training because he hits the ball very hard and hard and I have to react extremely quickly. I think it helps my game because now everyone is playing hard, everyone is putting in their shots. And training with him gives me the confidence that I’m ready for other speeds. For my part, I’m teaching him the backhand down the line, I can say that’s my best shot. And now he tells me that’s why his backhand down the line has improved (laughs).

On Gael’s final season on Tour: “The energy the fans give is incredible. He really gets his energy from the spectators who come to watch the games and the training sessions. It gives a lot of joy. Of course there are some concerns because he wants to have a strong season. And I know he can do it, he has trained well. I was surprised how hard he worked on the field and in the gym this off-season. I see that he really wants to end his career on a positive note. And I am happy to be with him. Support him on this great journey and support him no matter what.”

In the first round of the Australian Open, Elina will play against Kristina Buksha. The meeting will begin on January 18 and will begin at approximately 04:30 Kyiv time.