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Milos Raonic breezes into the sweet 16 at the Sony Open in Miami

stephanie myles

The way Canadian Milos Raonic is playing at the moment, you would never know he missed nearly two months with an ankle injury.

Following up on his quarter-final effort last week at Indian Wells, his first tournament since the Australian Open in January, the 23-year-old Canadian has made it look easy as he has strolled through to the fourth round at the Sony Open in Miami.

He needed just 56 minutes to dispose of Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain Monday afternoon – a ruthlessly efficient 6-1, 6-2 victory that puts him into the final 16 at the Masters 1000 series tournament.

Garcia-Lopez, a fit 30-year-old with a one-handed backhand, is a solid player currently ranked No. 55 but who has been ranked in the top 25 in his career and has two ATP Tour titles to his credit. Raonic completely outclassed him.

He now will face lucky loser Benjamin Becker of Germany for a match that would put him in the quarterfinals, potentially against No. 1 seed Rafael Nadal.

"I think this time I just generally improved, especially on second serve returns (and) taking advantage more of those opportunities," Raonic told the media in Miami. "It's going to be a tough match (against Bedene or Becker). But it's up to me. I've got to play well. If I do, I can always give myself an opportunity to do well."

That section with Becker was left wide open when Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina withdrew (he was scheduled to have surgery on his left wrist Monday at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and could miss the rest of the season). It was also the section that contained Raonic's countryman Vasek Pospisil; unfortunately, the struggling Pospisil lost to Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia (who lost to Becker on Monday) in his first match.

Raonic continues to wear a compression sleeve on his right arm, to protect it from the hot Miami sun after an allergic reaction to a skin creme. It might be giving him super powers; Raonic had 10 aces, and lost just five points on his own serve against Garcia-Lopez.

Perhaps even more revealing – and encouraging – was the fact that he won 21-of-27 points on Garcia-Lopez's second serve, which enabled him to break the Spaniard four times. Raonic won 12-of-15 points on his own second serve.

Toronto's Daniel Nestor, with partner Nenad Zimonjic, also advanced on Monday. The pair, seeded No. 6 in the doubles draw, defeated Jonathan Marray and Robin Haase 6-2, 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals.