MILOS HAS SOME FUN IN THE SUN
Canada’s Raonic upsets Berdych to advance to BNP Paribas Open quarters,
INDIAN WELLS, CALIF.— Canada’s Milos Raonic advanced to the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Open with a 6-4, 7-6 (7) win over sixth-seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic on Wednesday.
Raonic, seeded 12th, scored the only break of the game in the first set while saving break point twice to win in just under one hour and 50 minutes.
He racked up eight aces with his potent serve but also committed five double-faults.
Raonic, from Thornhill, will next face 13th seed Gael Monfils of France, who beat Argentina’s Federico Delbonis 6-3, 6-4. Raonic defeated Monfils in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open earlier this year.
Raonic reached the semifinals at Indian Wells last year, beating Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals before losing to Swiss star Roger Federer.
Earlier, David Goffin upset Stan Wawrinka 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (5) to reach the quarter-finals.
Goffin advanced to the quarters, where he next plays No. 10 seed Marin Cilic, who beat No. 8 Richard Gasquet, 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 as temperatures reached 32 C under cloudless skies in the California desert.
“I was struggling with my serve and it was difficult with the heat,” Goffin said. “In the third, it’s tough to fight again with the heat and with the level of Stan. The tiebreaker is like you flip a coin.”
Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams were to play later matches.
Ranked 18th in the world, Goffin improved to 2-26 against top-10 players, having beaten Raonic, then ranked ninth, in the quarter-finals at Basel in 2014.
The 25-year-old Belgian has gone to three sets in each of his matches so far. He saved two match points to beat wild card Frances Tiafoe in the second round and then rallied from a set down to outlast Guido Pella in the third round.
In women’s quarter-finals, No. 3 seed Agnieszka Radwanska defeated Petra Kvitova 6-2, 7-6 (3).
Ranked ninth and winner of two titles already this year, Wawrinka struggled mightily in the 21⁄ 2- hour match that featured 13 service breaks, with Wawrinka dropping serve in seven games.
In the third set tiebreaker, Wawrinka held at 5-all and was serving when he badly played a smash off Goffin’s short ball, sending the ball well past the baseline.
Goffin served out the match, winning on the next point when Wawrinka netted a forehand. Wawrinka had won all three of their previous matches.
“Was a match without brain, let’s put it that way,” Wawrinka said.
“If you want to win matches, you need to stay focused.”
Raonic racked up eight aces with his potent serve but also committed five double-faults