Milos Raonic advanced to quarterfinals of the Toronto Masters, after a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory over Julien Benneteau of France on Thursday night.
The Canadian barely got a day to recover from his hard-fought match against American Jack Sock, before he got another tough challenge from the Frenchman.
Raonic served hard against Benneteau, coupled with powerful ground-strokesm, winning the first set. But Benneteau had two breaks in the second set to get even. Raonic struggled at the beginning of third set but then dominated till the end of the match, winning the third round.
And the crowd goes wild @rogerscupto our boy Milos wins! #RogersCupTO @tenniscanada https://t.co/uu3Z1bYaAt
— ivan (@ivanpehar) August 8, 2014
"Today I was much more in a comfort zone," the world no 6 pointed out. "Created my opportunities. I kept on fighting and put together the things I needed to do."
The 23-year-old is scheduled to face Feliciano Lopez of Spain next, while the possibility of Raonic facing Roger Federer in the semifinals has filled Canadian fans with hope and excitement.
In their most recent face-off, Federer had ended the Canadian sensation's run for the Wimbledon title in the semifinal at the All England Club in July. It was Raonic's career-best performance at a major tournament but the loss against Federer left the youngster devastated.
Meanwhile, it was a bad day at the ATP Masters 1000 series tournament, with three shocking high-profile exits.
The first shock came in the morning with world no 3 Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland being knocked out by South Africa's Kevin Anderson in straight sets 7-6 (8), 7-5. This was followed by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga's 6-2, 6-2 win over world no 1 Novak Djokovic.
Lopez, meanwhile, sealed a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Czech's Tomas Berdych. And, Federer held on with a 7-6 (5), 6-7 (3), 6-4 win over 15th seed Marin Cilic of Croatia.
Meanwhile, Richard Gasquet pulled out of the third round following an abdominal strain, which gave Andy Murray a walkover to the quarterfinals.
