TORONTO -- In a battle between two of the biggest serves in men's tennis, John Isner got the best of Milos Raonic.
Isner eliminated Raonic in front of the Canadian's hometown crowd by winning 7-6 (9), 6-4 in the quarter-finals at the Rogers Cup men's tournament on Friday.
"I knew eventually I would cross paths with him," said Isner, who had never played Raonic before. "I knew the match was going to be super-close. Any time you have two players who serve like we do, it wasn't going to be much that separated us."
Raonic, from nearby Thornhill, Ont., was the last Canadian in the singles draw and hadn't played since Tuesday's second-round win over Viktor Troicki. He earned a walkover win to the quarters when Andy Murray pulled out with a injury and was looking to become the first Canadian since 1969 to reach the tournament's semifinals.
"It's disappointing in a lot of ways," said Raonic. "I don't think it's disappointing that I lost at home, but disappointing that I lost in general and playing the way I (did).
"For me it's about playing well every week. I play tennis for myself. I love the support I get, but I'm frustrated with myself. Not because I played poorly in Toronto, but because I played poorly today."
Isner was playing in his second match of the day after advancing earlier in the evening with a 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4 victory over German Phillipp Kohlschreiber in a match that took just under two hours.
"The way I looked at it, I was at a bit of an advantage in my opinion," said Isner. "He hadn't played in a few days and I just played a match earlier. He was a little fresher, but I was little more in tune with the tournament."
Top seed Novak Djokovic, Janko Tipsarevic, also from Serbia, and Richard Gasquet of France each advanced to the semifinals after playing their second match of the day.
Tipsarevic advanced with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Spain's Marcel Granollers, while Gasquet ousted American Mardy Fish 5-7, 6-1, 6-2. Djokovic got by Tommy Haas 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
Against Isner, Raonic struggled to control his serve in the first set, as he double faulted four times -- twice in the sixth game -- before pulling ahead 4-2 as the hometown crowd cheered on the local and waved red "Go Canada" signs.
"My serve was not there by any means and that's a big part," said Raonic. "I wasn't putting enough pressure on him. I gave away a lot of free points. I double faulted a lot more than I normally do. I just wasn't able to put pressure on him the way he was able to put pressure on me."
Isner fought back against the 21-year-old with a break, held serve and controlled most of the tiebreaker before winning the set with an ace.
Tied 3-3 in the second, Isner used forehand groundstrokes at the baseline to break Raonic, then won four straight points to pull ahead by two games.
Raonic pulled back from the brink to make it 5-4 but the 27-year-old Isner held on two win his second match in less than five hours.
Except Raonic, all the quarter-finalists had to play two matches since rain delays shuffled the singles schedule and pushed third-round matches into early Friday.
Fish, who lost in last year's final, showed fatigued in the third set as he struggled to chase down Gasquet's ground strokes. The 30-year-old was slumped over between points as Gasquet won for the first time in four tries against Fish.
"It's tough but I think he played one more hour than me in morning with (Juan) Monaco so it made a little bit difference, I think," said Gasquet.
"I saw him a little bit tired at the start of the second set. First he played very good. I couldn't do nothing. But I tried to fight a lot and then I defend well and I did a good match. I think I was fresher than him. But for sure to play two matches in a day, it's very difficult."
Djokovic advanced to the quarter-finals after winning 6-4, 6-4 against American Sam Querrey in a rain-delayed match.
The world No. 2-ranked Serbian led Querrey 6-4, 4-3 before threatening clouds opened up, forcing the umpire to suspend play for two and a half hours.
When play resumed, Djokovic only needed 10 minutes to finish off Querrey. That may prove fortunate as the defending champion was scheduled to play again later in the evening against 11th-seeded Tommy Haas of Germany.
Against Querrey, Djokovic fired in two straight aces to go up 5-3 in the second set, but Querrey held serve to force a 10th game. However, the American's fate look sealed once he lost a challenge to go down 30-0 and Djokovic closed out the match with another ace and Querrey's long return.
With all singles matches called off Thursday because of a constant drizzle at Rexall Centre, Gasquet and Fish hit the courts early Friday for their third-round contest.
Gasquet, the No. 14 seed, advanced with a 6-4, 6-2 upset of fourth-seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic while Fish rallied earlier in the day to eliminate Juan Monaco of Argentina 2-6, 6-1, 6-4.
Tipsarevic also played an early match, downing Croatian Marin Cilic 6-2, 6-4.
Haas booked his spot in the quarter-finals with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 over Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic.
