Del Potro to face Raonic in Miami Open quarters

Juan Martin del Potro
Juan Martin del Potro Reuters

Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina will face Milos Raonic of Canada in the Miami Open quarterfinals after both players beat their respective rivals in the fourth round.

It's a rematch of Indian Wells semifinal last week when the Argentine fifth seed defeated Raonic en route to winning the title.

Del Potro continued his run of excellent form at the Masters event as he overcame a 1-4 deficit to defeat No. 22 seed Filip Krajinovic of Serbia 6-4, 6-2 for his 14th consecutive victory.

"I will try to keep going and see how far I can go," Del Potro said on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Indian Wells and Acapulco champion extends his career-best start to 20-3, as he moves to within three matches of the 'Sunshine Double' -- winning the first two ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events of the season in the same year.

Nobody on the ATP World Tour has won more matches than the right-hander's 20, and this is the second-longest tour-level winning streak of Del Potro's career, only trailing a 23-match stretch in 2008.

Number 20 Raonic continued his return to full fitness and form when he maintained his perfect record over Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 6-4 before securing the last eight spot.

"He's showing good signs for his body, his game and he's improving every day," Del Potro said of Raonic. "I also think he has a big potential to reach the final here, so it's going to be a difficult challenge to me."

At Indian Wells, Del Potro did not face a break point in ousting Raonic in just 65 minutes. The Argentine and Canadian are knotted at 2-2 in their head-to-head series heading into their quarterfinal battle.

"It'll be a difficult match. Wasn't that close of a match by any stretch of the imagination last week. I'm going to have to do a lot of things better," Raonic said.

(IANS)

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