Raonic fights off Edmund to get into to semis

DELRAY BEACH — Entering Friday’s match, topseeded Milos Raonic had yet to lose a set through two rounds of the Delray Beach Open.

Not only did he finally drop one, he was on the brink of elimination against No. 8 Kyle Edmund. After losing the first set, Raonic recovered for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory. He will play Juan Martin del Potro in the semifinals Saturday at 8 p.m.

“I don’t like to work more than I have to,” Raonic said of dropping that first set. “If you got it, you got it. He made it difficult for me. It’s not like I just went out there and dropped a set. He stepped up. He played well. He broke me in that game. He held on through. I had to dig deep and sort of access tools that I know how to use and fortunately he gave me a little bit space to work with and I made the most of it.”

Raonic attributed the slow start to playing too passive against the aggressive Edmund. It wasn’t until midway through the second when things started going hisway.

“Iwas a little bit slow out the get-go,” Raonic said. “I had that [first] game with two chances, one of them I felt that I wasn’t aggressive enough. I was too passive. Then I got a little bit down on myself. I wasn’t necessarily focused on the right things. I’m glad Iwas able to get out of that scenario halfway through the second.”

American Jack Sock, the No. 3, seed also advanced with a 6-4, 7-6(4) victory against Steve Johnson. He will face Donald Young in the other semifinal at 3 p.m.

“I thought our first set was very different,” Sock said. “It either comes down to a break here, a break there. Toward the end of sets as well, it usually gets close. In that first set, I was able to get the early break.”

The signature moment of the day occurred after the match when a woman leaned over the railing to ask if Sock could autograph her dog’s harness.

And, of course, he obliged.

“It was definitely a first but the dog was really cute, so I was happy to do it,” Sock said. “I like dogs.”

Sock, who has a Pomsky and Pomeranian breed at home, then kissed the dog before making his way through a sea of fans, stopping along the way to sign even more autographs.

“Are we done talking about dogs,” Sock joked afterward. “Serious stuff [questions] now?”

After the players broke five times in the first set, there were none in the second. Sock put the pressure on in the tiebreaker by scoring the first three points.

Sock and Johnson have a long history. As a doubles team, they won Olympic bronze last August in Rio de Janeiro. Sock now owns a 5-3 edge in head-to-head matches, winning at the 2014 French Open and Atlanta in 2012. Johnson’s last victory in the series came in 2015 at Washington.

“It’s tennis,” Johnson said. “If you look at any match, there’s a point or two that you’d change one way or the other and you could change the outcome. There were probably one or two points here or there and unfortunately I didn’t capitalize.”

Sock’s odds of advancing to the championship are in his favor. He has won his past three matches against Young, who opened the tournament by upsetting second-seeded Ivo Karlovic in the first round.

Still, Sock is approaching with extreme caution.

“Any time you can get wins against a guy, it helps,” Sock said. “Obviously, everyone keeps improving and guys are tweaking things here and there. Whatever has worked for me in the last three matches, he may come out with a completely different game plan and try to change it up.”