Also, Japan’s Kei Nishikori topped Rajeev Ram of the United States 6-3, 6-4 and South Africa’s Kevin Anderson beat Australia’s Bernard Tomic 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
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In the third round, Djokovic faced Radek Stepanek and the veteran from the Czech Republic was two points away from upsetting Andy Murray in the first round of the French Open but the top seed registered a 6-2, 6-4 victory despite finding himself a break down in the second set and reached the quarterfinals for the second consecutive year at the Rogers Cup. Nishikori won in Memphis in February for his 11th ATP Tour title.
Frenchman Gael Monfils beat Canadian Milos Raonic in straight sets on Friday to set up a Rogers Cup semi-final with world number one Novak Djokovic. Ultimately, unforced errors were Muller’s undoing, with both sets easily in reach of the unseeded player from Luxembourg.
“I play Davis Cup outside (of France)”, said Monfils, referring to the team event between different nations.
World number six Venus Williams lost 6-1, 6-7, 6-3 to fellow American Madison Keys, who next faces Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova – a 6-4, 6-7, 6-1 victor against Polish fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska. “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”. “It’s the same feeling, you know, either way”. Early in the second, Berdych complained to the umpire about the balls that were being used and it was symptomatic of his weird night – he seemingly went looking for adversity. On a more positive note for Berdych, his last victory against Novak Djokovic came just three years ago, although the world number one now holds a 12-match streak after suffering that 2013 defeat. Monfils was coming off a victory last week in Washington. I was very fortunate to win that first set. “I played a point at a time”.
Wawrinka led 5-2 in the opener, but failed to press home his advantage and eventually lost a tie-break after failing to take four set points.
“There’s definitely disappointment in the way I lost my serve”, said Raonic. Former Slovak tennis player Marián Vajda and former German tennis player and six-time Grand Slam champion Boris Becker are his coaches. Their last match in Canada was competitive as the two players went to a third-set tiebreaker.
Djokovic has advanced to 13 of his last 14 Masters 1000 events, winning ten.
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Stan Wawrinka was obviously disappointed: ‘I think I had a lot of chances in the first set.It was a tough match to play Kei today. “I was calm, served very good and mixed up my game”, he said.
