Milos Raonic impressive in dispatching Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Madrid; Novak Djokovic next

What Milos Raonic lacked in first-serve percentage Thursday night in Madrid against No. 7 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, he more than made up for in devastating effectiveness.

The 25-year-old Canadian won 24-of-26 points on his first serve and an impressive 17-of-24 points on his second delivery to dispatch his higher-ranked rival 6-4, 6-4 in just an hour and 12 minutes.

Raonic is now in the quarter-finals of the Masters 1000 tournament, which is exactly where he ended up a year ago despite a painful foot nerve issue that required surgery just a week later, and forced him to miss both the Rome tournament and the French Open.

Last year, he lost in two close sets to No. 3 seed Andy Murray.

This year, the level of Raonic’s tennis is a cut above. But so is this year’s quarter-final opponent: it’s all-world No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia.

The matchup against Tsonga Thursday would seem to be a good one for Raonic as they bring similar skills sets to the court; both rely on a big serve and a big forehand. It could be argued that Raonic wins both those categories. Both are vulnerable on the backhand side but this season, Raonic has made huge strides in that area.

Their first meeting was an epic one. In the second round of the Olympic event at Wimbledon in 2012, Tsonga eked out a victory, 25-23 in the deciding set. At Indian Wells in 2013, Tsonga pulled out a three-set win.

The last time they met was two years ago in the third round at the Masters 1000 tournament in Rome, and Raonic won in two close sets. He made it even more routine this time around.

Tsonga targeted Raonic’s backhand industriously and it held up remarkably – as indeed it has for much of the season. And he benefited from his French opponent being by far the less fresh of the two; while Raonic had a day off on Wednesday, Tsonga fought through a three-set victory over Spaniard Albert Ramos-Viñolas that took two hours, 45 minutes and ended in the wee hours.

Raonic has reached this point of the tournament having done most of his work from the baseline; he has made but a few attempts in each match to get to the net. And it has been enough.

Against Djokovic, he’ll have to add more bells and whistles.

Raonic is 0-6 against the Serb in his career with all of their meetings coming either at Grand Slams, Masters 1000-level tournaments or Davis Cup.

Of the 16 sets played, Raonic has won just one – two years ago, in the semi-finals of that Rome tournament in which he last faced Tsonga.

It was a 6-7, 7-6, 6-3 Djokovic win that, to that point in Raonic’s career, was arguably the best match the Canadian had ever played against one of the very top players.

With the altitude, the conditions in Madrid are a lot faster than in Rome.

Tsonga is far from being in Djokovic’s class as a returner; the serves that curled directly into the Frenchman’s body and handcuffed him so effectively Thursday night? Djokovic will calmly step aside and return them – deep.

The big kicking serves in the ad court? Djokovic will use arguably the best two-handed backhand in the game to handle them.

Raonic will have to up the ante considerably from the 52 per cent first-serve rate he produced against Tsonga to even have a prayer.

The last meeting between Djokovic and Raonic came in the Indian Wells final in mid-March, but Raonic’s recurring adductor issue kicked up and he managed only two games.

The Serb was an absolute beast on the return in his own third-round match Thursday against Roberta Bautista Agut, a 6-2, 6-1 dismantling of the Spaniard on his home soil.

It could be 10 p.m., Madrid time (4 p.m. EDT) by the time Raonic and Djokovic get on court at the Caja Magica Friday. But the battle between one of the best serves, and the best return, could be worth the wait.

The other Canadian still alive in the tournament, Vasek Pospisil, finally got on court late Thursday for his first doubles match with American partner Jack Sock.

The No. 8 seeds had a first-round bye, and Sock played until late Thursday in a three-set loss to Joao Sousa of Portugal in singles. So it was 10:20 p.m. local time when they began play against Treat Huey of the Philippines and Max Mirnyi of Belarus.

Huey and Belarus had defeated Canadian Daniel Nestor and partner Radek Stepanek in the first round; Sock and Pospisil pulled off a comeback win, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 10-4 in the match tiebreak to move on to the doubles quarter-finals.