Djokovic Friday faces Czech fifth seed Tomas Berdych, who got past Ryan Harrison of the United States 6-4, 6-7 (2/7), 6-4.
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Second seed Stan Wawrinka headlined the seeded players to advance on the second day of action in Rogers Cup Main Draw tournament at Aviva Centre. The Frenchman won the Citi Open on Sunday in Washington.
The crowd hung on every play, groaning loudly when Raonic’s challenge was shown to be out on the video boards to give Monfils a 4-3 lead.
Wawrinka topped South Africa’s Kevin Anderson 6-1, 6-3 in their quarter-final matchup to set up his semi with Nishikori.
Nishikori broke his opponent to go 3-2 up, then again at 5-3 to take the first set, but Dimitrov fought back to make an immediate break at the third seed’s expense. “So I did a good job anticipating that shot and make him play a lot of volleys”. He saved 3 set points in the first set tiebreak as he persevered and waited for Berdych to unravel before his very eyes.
“There’s definitely disappointment in the way I lost my serve”, said Raonic.
“We played so many times”.
Earlier Friday, Djokovic fended off Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic 7-6 (6), 6-4 for his spot in the semifinals. “That’s more or less where I have been the past two years now”.
“I’m playing my first matches in three or four weeks ago”.
Swiss second seed Stan Wawrinka won a hard-hitting battle with American Jack Sock on Thursday to reach the quarter-finals at the Rogers Cup with a 7-6 (3) 6-2 triumph. “I think if I can play good tennis, I think I will have some chance to win”.
There was a victor for the [2.6] shot of “no tie breaks” in the Gael Monfils vs Milos Raonic clash, although the match result wasn’t as I had expected, with Lamonf coming through in two sets.
Speaking after the match, Wawrinka, who will now play for a place in his fourth ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final, said he was pleased with his performance. Wawrinka had an easy job against Kevin Anderson, losing just 4 games, while Nishikori had to work much harder to dismiss Grigor Dimitrov, needing 2 hours and 9 minutes to reach back-to-back Canada semis.
Wawrinka is certainly the slight favourite in this match as he has the slight lead in their head-to-head and his backhand is a risky weapon on hard courts.
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Anderson badly bungled a forehand sitter to face another break point and sailed a forehand donating the break and a 5-3 lead to Wawrinka.
