Del Potro to face Raonic in Miami Open quarters

Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 13:15:15|Editor: Liangyu

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WASHINGTON, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina will face up to Milos Raonic of Canada in the Miami Open quarterfinals after both players beat respective rivals in the fourth round on Tuesday.

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.

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.

No. 20 seed 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. "He's been the best player in the world for the past four, five weeks winning Acapulco, winning last week as well. He's playing well so far this week, so it's going to be a difficult match. I'm going to have to do my things well if I want to give myself a chance."