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TORONTO (AP) — Milos Raonic easily advanced to the Rogers Cup quarterfinals in front of his home fans, routing American qualifier Jared Donaldson 6-2, 6-3 on Thursday night.
The fourth-seeded Raonic, the Montenegro-born player who moved to the Toronto area when he was 3, set up a match Friday against 10th-seeded Gael Monfils of France.
"I'm taking care of my own things, creating some opportunities. And, you know, I'm going for the shots," Raonic said. "I'm taking time away from the other guy, making the guy, from what I can tell, the other side of the net, uncomfortable, not giving him too much rhythm."
Raonic had 15 aces to Donaldson's three.
"It's that way always," Raonic said about his serve. "And just because I saw that he was going to return from close, I went a little bit harder into the body just to try to make him think about it, hopefully make him step back to open up the angles for myself more."
Top-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia also advanced, beating Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-4 in the late match. Djokovic, the tournament winner in 2007, 2011 and 2012, will face fifth-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, a 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-4 winner over American Ryan Harrison.
"We played so many times. He's one of the few players I've played at least 30 times," Djokovic said about Berdych. "It's not a first. Obviously, I need to review some past matches."
Monfils outlasted Belgium's David Goffin 7-6 (5), 2-6, 6-4, winning when Goffin put a backhand into the net at York University's Aviva Centre. The Frenchman won the Citi Open on Sunday in Washington.
"I love to play when it's crowded, and if the crowd is for the other one, it's fine," Monfils said about facing Raonic in Canada. "I expect a very good match."
Also, second-seeded Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland beat 16th-seeded Jack Sock of the United States 7-6 (3), 6-2; third-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan topped Rajeev Ram of the United States, 6-3, 6-4; South Africa's Kevin Anderson edged 12th-seeded Bernard Tomic of Australia 4-6, 6-3, 6-4; and Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov beat Croatia's Ivo Karlovic 6-3, 7-5.
Wawrinka will face the 6-foot-6 Anderson.
"I'm playing against Anderson, who I lost many times against him," Wawrinka said. "I lost two years ago when I played him here. It's going to be interesting match to play again against him. It's always been difficult to beat him, but hopefully I can do that tomorrow."
Nishikori will play Dimitrov.
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