After the other Canadians lose in Miami, Milos Raonic coasts to third round of the Sony Open

It was impossible not to notice the massive blue compression sleeve on the powerful right arm of Canadian tennis star Milos Raonic, as he took the court in Miami Saturday.

But it hampered absolutely nothing in his game; the 23-year-old was impressive in a 6-4, 7-6 (1) victory over young American Jack Sock in his first match at the Sony Open.

Raonic, the No. 12 seed, had a bye in the first round of the 10-day event, so this was his first action since losing to Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine at the Indian Wells tournament a little over a week ago.

Raonic manager Austin Nunn told Eh Game the sleeve was for protection against the sun, after Raonic had an allergic reaction on his arm from some sort of creme, either a moisturizer or some sort of Icy-Hot type product.

Once Raonic started playing, it was clear that the sleeve wasn't an indicator of any sort of injury. He served 14 aces, and never faced a break point on his serve.

And when it came to crunch time late in both sets against Sock, just 21, he pounced.

Raonic broke Sock when he served at 4-5 in the first set. And, after Sock lost just two points during the entire second set, in six service games, Raonic took three of the four points Sock served in the tiebreak.

It was a clinical effort. And Raonic's section of the Miami draw has purged itself of seeded players rather invitingly as he goes forward.

Raonic's third-round opponent will be Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain, who upset No. 24 seed Gaël Monfils Sunday.

It's too bad, in a way; Raonic and Monfils are quite friendly and often practice together so that promised to be solid entertainment.

On the flipside, Garcia Lopez is a solid but considerably less dangerous opponent.

If Raonic wins that, he would meet the winner of qualifier Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia (ranked No. 119) and lucky loser Benjamin Becker (No. 93), who inherited the spot vacated after Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina withdrew from the tournament, to reach the quarter-finals.

Bedene reached the third round by defeating the No. 27 seed, Raonic's countryman Vasek Pospisil 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-3 in a match that took nearly 2 1/2 hours.

Pospisil, who missed a month with the disc issue in his lower back that forced him to withdraw before his third-round match at the Australian Open, has struggled with confidence since his return to action. He also lost his first match at the Indian Wells event.

Having missed the early part of the 2013 season due to mononucleosis a year ago, and therefore having no results to defend during this part of the season, these two back-to-back Masters 1000 events offered terrific opportunities to earn ranking points that would boost him as the European red clay-court season approaches.

Instead, the 23-year-old from Vancouver is struggling with his confidence.

Toronto's Daniel Nestor, seeded No. 6 in the doubles with partner Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia, opened their tournament with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Jamie Murray of Great Britain and John Peers of Australia.

On Friday, Montreal's Genie Bouchard, the No. 18 seed on the women's side, lost to Elina Svitolina of Ukraine in her first match of the tournament.