[PHOTOS] Home tennis fans see Raonic & Nestor advance

August 7, 2014

By Asif Hossain

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Milos Raonic and Daniel Nestor made sure Canada wouldn’t have back-to-back disappointing days on home court by winning their respective matches in Toronto Wednesday.

UPDATE: Thursday, August 7 at 9:00 p.m. ET

Milos Raonic defeated Julien Benneteau 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the third round and will face Feliciano Lopez of Spain on Friday night in their quarterfinal match. 

In men’s singles, Raonic advanced to the third round by beating a stubborn Jack Sock on two tiebreakers 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-4). This was the third and fourth time the two went to tiebreakers in a week. Raonic defeated Sock at Citi Open in Washington, DC before lifting the tournament title.

RELATED: “A series of unfortunate events” on Tuesday

Sock, an American, and his Canadian partner Vasek Pospisil recently won the Wimbledon doubles title. On the singles court Sock proved to be a strong match for the world number six Raonic, taking the only successful break point in the contest and pushing the hometown favourite hard throughout the night.

Raonic represents the last hope for a Canadian singles title on home soil at Rogers Cup. (Photo: Janet Kwan)

Raonic and Sock met for the second time in a week, requiring four tiebreakers in two matches to settle both contests in the Canadian’s favour. (Photo: Janet Kwan)

After dropping the opening set, Raonic fought back to win the second set 7-2 on a tiebreaker. (Photo: Janet Kwan)

Sock pressed Raonic to a decisive third set tiebreaker where the Canadian again prevailed 7-4. (Photo: Janet Kwan)

Raonic after hitting his winning shot, will next face Frenchman Julien Benneteau in the third round. (Photo: Janet Kwan)

Relying on his booming serve, Raonic hit 15 aces, six of them coming in the all-important third set.

Prior to Raonic’s triumph, Nestor and his Serbian partner Nenad Zimonjic beat Novak Djokovic (Serbia) and Stan Wawrinka (Switzerland) 6-4, 6-4 in men’s doubles.

It’s tough enough to beat Nestor/Zimonjic under the best of conditions, but Djokovic had come off a two hour, 40-minute, three-set classic against Frenchman Gael Monfils earlier in the day.

Nestor last won a masters double title at home in 2008 with current partner Zimonjic (photo: William Loo).

Nestor and Zimonjic will next face French duo Benneteau and Roger-Vasselin in the quarterfinals (photo: William Loo)

Nestor & Zimonjic beat Djokovic and Wawrenka 6-4, 6-4 at Rogers Cup (photo: William Loo)

Raonic meets Julien Benneteau of France next on Thursday. It’s a surprise third round matchup after the Frenchman defeated 11^th seed Ernests Gulbis 7-6 (7-4), 6-3.

Benneteau, along with his countryman Edouard Roger-Vasselin, will also have a run-in with Nestor in doubles quarterfinals likely on Friday.

In Montreal, Gabriela Dabrowski, Citi Open women’s doubles champion, will partner with Isareli Shahar Pe’er to face Russian pair Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vestina on Thursday with a quarterfinal berth on the line.