Milos Raonic into quarter-finals at Miami Open

Canada's Milos Raonic advanced to the quarter-finals at the Miami Open in Key Biscayne, Fla. after downing Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia in straight sets. The Thornhill, Ont., product needed just 54 minutes to defeat Dzumhur 6-0, 6-3.

Raonic, seeded No. 12 for the tournament, will meet No. 24 seed Nick Kyrgios of Australia in the next round.

Comeback queen

Switzerland's Timea Bacsinszky has been the comeback queen of this Miami Open, and is heading to the semifinals after another three-set marathon.

The 19th-seeded Bacsinszky rallied to top fifth-seeded Simona Halep of Romania 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the quarter-finals Tuesday, continuing her deepest run in four trips to Key Biscayne.

"It's something amazing," Bacsinszky said. "I'm really happy today."

A Russian player will await her in the semis, either 15th-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova or 30th-seeded Ekaterina Makarova.

Bacsinszky's last appearance on Key Biscayne before this tournament was 2011, and she didn't even take a set off Halep in two previous meetings. But she broke Halep for a 3-1 lead in the second set on her way to knotting the match, then took full command by getting two quick breaks for a 3-0 lead in the third.

It was the second straight win against a top-five seed for Bacsinszky, both coming after she dropped the opening set. She ousted third-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska in the round of 16 — each of those matches lasting more than two hours. Bacsinszky's backhand winner to end the match Tuesday came at 2:28.

Women's seeds faltering

With Halep out, the only top-10 seed left in the women's draw is Germany's Angelique Kerber, who meets American Madison Keys in the quarterfinals Wednesday.

Bacsinszky got the break in the second set just before the match was stopped for about 10 minutes when rain began sprinkling. Players did not leave the court while ballboys used their feet to drag towels across the baselines and sidelines during the break. Play eventually resumed under an extremely dark sky.

Seventh-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic needed three grueling sets to beat 10th-seeded Richard Gasquet of France and reach the quarterfinals earlier Tuesday. Berdych needed nearly 2 1/2 hours to win 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, with the temperature reaching the mid-80s and the humidity making it seem much warmer on the stadium court.

Berdych will face top-ranked Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the quarterfinals. Djokovic knocked off DominicThiem of Austria, 6-3, 6-4.

"It was far from easy," Djokovic said. "I struggled a lot."

Djokovic moved to 25-1 on the year, 27-1 in his last 28 matches on Key Biscayne. The Serbian star also moved a step closer to becoming the tournament's first back-to-back-to-back winner since Andre Agassi in 2001, 2002 and 2003. He fended off 14 of the 15 break points he faced and hasn't dropped a set so far in the tournament.

"That's a positive, in a way," Djokovic said of his success on break points. "I try not to get myself in those positions too much."

No pushover

Thiem was no pushover, and seemed the farthest thing from intimidated.

He cranked his serve up to 141 mph, recorded 11 of the match's first 16 winners and twice got games on Djokovic's serve to last 10 minutes before the world No. 1 would ultimately prevail. Perhaps it shouldn't have been surprising, since he and Djokovic came into the day leading the tour with 24 wins apiece this year.

"With one of 15 break points, you cannot beat anyone, probably," Thiem said. "For sure, not Djokovic."

Thiem nearly broke Djokovic to get to 5-4 in the first, before a review showed that the backhand that looked like a winner actually sailed a tad long. Djokovic hopped from his seat — he was already in changeover mode — and took advantage, winning to finish off the opening set. He double-faulted to give Thiem a break and knot the second set at 3-3, but broke right back and eventually closed out the win.

"He's still very young," Djokovic said of Thiem, 22, the youngest player ranked in the top 20. "He's been playing some of his best tennis the last couple of months. We'll definitely see a lot of him in the future."

Gillies Simon easily reached the quarter-finals in the bottom of the men's draw, needing only 58 minutes to beat fellow Frenchman Lucas Pouille 6-0, 6-1. Simon has dropped only eight games in his last five sets against Pouille.