Raonic wins to set up all-Canadian semifinal in Montreal

Canada’s Milos Raonic thrilled the home crowd Friday afternoon at the Rogers Cup in Montreal, edging Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis 76 (73), 46, 64 to set up a semifinal against countryman Vasek Pospisil.

Raonic, the world’s 13thranked player, outaced Gulbis 10 to six and was also the more consistent server throughout the twohour, 26minute match.

Gulbis was effective on serve in the first two sets, but in the final set he put just 34 percent of his first serves in play and threw an entire game away with four double faults.

Even so, the 38thranked Gulbis had a break point in the ninth game of the final set and could have served for the match had he converted it. Instead, Raonic came back and won that game and then broke his opponent’s serve to wrap up the victory.

“Gamewise I don’t think it was the best match because we didn’t give each other any rhythm. He’s serving big. I’m serving big,” Gulbis said afterward.

“At 4all, break point, if I start to make those passing shots, which is a tough shot but I know I can make it, I’ll start to beat these guys.”

Unlike Raonic, Pospisil barely had time to sweat in his quarterfinal match on Friday, advancing when Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko retired due to illness when trailing 03.

The other two quarterfinal matches, to be played this evening, will pit world No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia against ninthranked Frenchman Richard Gasquet and world No. 4 Rafael Nadal against Australian Marinko Matosevic.

The Rogers Cup is one of the biggest hardcourt events on the ATP calendar and a key tuneup for the U.S. Open, which gets underway later this month.