Milos Raonic pulls out another dramatic victory, but the adductor muscle woes return in Monte Carlo

Milos Raonic looked happy enough after his third-round victory over qualifier Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia Thursday, a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (5) win that marked his second consecutive third-set tiebreak squeaker at the Monte Carlo Masters.

But what Friday’s quarter-final will bring is another matter entirely.

The 25-year-old Canadian had to call for a medical timeout at 5-6 in the third set, just before he was to serve to stay in the match, because of the pesky right adductor muscle that has plagued him most of the season.

After having the muscle massaged, Raonic went out and held his serve, and then took the tiebreak. But he did so gingerly; and his opponent failed to really make him play, test that movement, challenge him after two and a half hours of impressive resistance and great hustle leading up to it.

In stark contrast to Wednesday’s dogfight against Pablo Cuevas, Raonic’s challenge against the No. 98-ranked Dzumhur was setting up to be a routine win after he won the first set. But Raonic made it a little complicated for himself; for the second match in a row, his forehand was flying on him. The errors were piling up.

On the plus side, his backhand, for the second match in a row, was solid and impressive. Raonic served better than he did Wednesday and he found his net game again; after coming in 21 times in three full sets Wednesday, he came in 20 times in the first set along Thursday (successful on 15 of those attempts).

For the match, he was 34-for-52 and after struggling on his second serve early on – he won just 3-of-10 points on it in the second set, he won 10-of-16 in the third set to set that ship right.

For a long time Thursday, it appeared Raonic’s opponent would be mercurial No. 16 seed Benoit Paire of France, who was up a set and two breaks of serve against No. 2 Andy Murray of Great Britain only to lose 2-6, 7-5, 7-5.

Against Paire, Raonic might have been able to count on a certain amount of shotmaking and big serving to carry him through. Against Murray, whom he has beaten three times (once on clay all the way back in 2012), it will be much more of a grind. Murray has won their last three matches; the last time Raonic defeated him was at Indian Wells more than two years ago.

Raonic’s movement needs to be in peak form to stand up to the Scot. And it doesn’t appear likely that will be the case.

Exactly a year ago at the same quarter-final stage, Raonic was also hobbled. He had to retire against Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic with the foot nerve issue that eventually required surgery a few weeks later and caused him to miss the French Open.

Hopefully, for Raonic’s sake, 24 hours of treatment will help.

But with all the slipping and sliding to come, with Masters 1000 events in Madrid and Rome, and then the French Open, the ongoing adductor issue has to be a major concern.