Milos Raonic serves to Tim Smyczek during the Delray Beach Open at the Delray Beach Tennis Center on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017. Raonic has withdrawn from the final of the Delray Beach Open with an injury, according to the tournament's Twitter account.Randy Vazquez/The Associated Press
Top-seeded Milos Raonic withdrew from the Delray Beach Open final Sunday after injuring his hamstring a day earlier, giving the title to Jack Sock.
Raonic slightly tore his right hamstring Saturday night, feeling a sharp pain while chasing down a drop shot in his semifinal victory over Juan Martin del Potro.
Raonic tried to ignore the discomfort, opting to go to sleep and hoping he would feel fine in the morning. Instead, after getting two hours of treatment, the 26-year-old Canadian ranked fourth in the world hobbled onto a practice court where Sock was warming up and announced he would be unable to play.
The third-seeded Sock wound up with his second title of the year and moved up to a career-best 18th in the ATP rankings. The 24-year-old also won last month in New Zealand and helped the U.S. reach the quarterfinals of the Davis Cup.
Sock is 11-1 this year, with his only loss to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the third round of the Australian Open.
Only Roger Federer, who won the Australian Open, has a better winning percentage that Sock this year. He also helped lead the United States to the Davis Cup quarter-finals with a first-round win over Switzerland.
"This is disappointing in a lot of ways," said Raonic, who also suffered an adductor injury during his run to the Australian Open quarter-finals that forced him to pull out of Canada's Davis Cup tie versus Britain. "I've been unfortunate with suffering injuries in three tournaments in a row. Being one match away from a title and not being able to compete, that's not easy to accept."
Sock, who supplanted John Isner as the top-ranked American male last October, said the walkover was "not ideal for either side, but a title is a title."
"I've been playing well. Now I just have to keep my head down and do everything I can to progress," he said.