Top seed Milos Raonic weathered a stern test from eighth seed Kyle Edmund on Friday at the Delray Beach Open to advance into the final four 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Edmund showed no fear in the opening set, grabbing the lone break at 3-3 and later holding to love at 5-4 to clinch the early lead. But Raonic responded strongly, winning the final three games of the second set to level the match and then immediately breaking Edmund to start the deciding set. The Canadian held his slight advantage the rest of the way, comfortably closing out the match on serve to advance in one hour and 39 minutes.

“I was a little bit slow off the block, got a little down on myself after that and wasn’t necessarily focusing on the right things. I was glad to be able to get out of that midway through the second set,” said Raonic. “But Kyle has very good potential. He takes it to you and has a forehand that’s very hard to read. He’s constantly improving, so things look bright for him.”

Standing between Raonic and Sunday’s final is the winner between seventh seed Juan Martin del Potro and fourth seed and defending champion Sam Querrey. Raonic is even in his FedEx ATP Head2Head with Querrey at 2-2 and has won their past two matches. He’s also even with del Potro in their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry at 1-1, but they haven’t played in four years.

“I feel like I’m getting better each match,” said Raonic. “With this constant improvement, I’m feeling positive and like I have a good shot to win the matches ahead of me.”

Third seed Jack Sock continued his quest for his second ATP World Tour title this season by defeating fifth seed and fellow American Steve Johnson, 6-4, 7-6(3). Sock survived a wild first set highlighted by five breaks of serve. Both players held throughout the second set, but Sock raced to a 6/2 lead in the tie-break before wrapping up the contest on his third match point.

Sock improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head against Johnson to 4-1, including a win last month in the Auckland semi-finals.

“The first set was obviously different from our usual matches when it comes down to a break here or there, but I was glad to come out on top of it,” said Sock. “I might come over a few more backhands than him, but we’re both trying to do the same thing on court and that’s why our matches are always so close.”

He now faces another American in Donald Young, who advanced via walkover on Thursday when Steve Darcis withdrew due to personal reasons. Sock leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 2-0

“Anytime you get wins against a guy, that always helps,” said Sock.” But everyone keeps improving and tweaking things. He may come out with a completely different game plan from our past matches, but I know what works well for me and I’ll have to just go and do that.”

DOUBLES

Yen-Hsun Lu and Leander Paes caused an upset in the doubles draw by scoring a quarter-final win over top seeds Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan 7-6(4), 2-6, 10-7. They’ll now play third seeds Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi for a place in the final.

Second seed Dominic Thiem continued his dominant form on Friday at the Rio Open presented by Claro, sweeping into his first ATP World Tour semi-final of the year with a convincing 6-2, 6-3 win over Diego Schwartzman.

Thiem wasted no time getting down to business, keeping Schwartzman on the defence with his returns and racing through 11 of the first 13 games. The Argentine provided a late surge by breaking Thiem twice to go on a three-game run, but the Austrian calmly responded by breaking Schwartzman to love to advance in one hour and 15 minutes.

Thiem improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head record against Schwartzman to 3-0 and scores his second straight win over the Argentine in Rio, having also prevailed in last year’s second-round clash. He also matches his semi-final finish in last year’s tournament.

Next up for the Austrian is fifth seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas, who ended the inspired run of Argentine qualifier Nicolas Kicker 6-2, 6-3. The Spaniard has been on a hot streak this month, reaching the semi-finals in Quito and quarter-finals in Buenos Aires.

“It’s my first semi-final at a 500 tournament, so I’m very happy,” said Ramos-Vinolas. “I’m playing at a good level at the moment on clay and hope to keep it going for the next round.”

Defending champion Nick Kyrgios cruised into the semi-finals of the Open 13 Marseille on Friday, dismissing Slovakian qualifier Norbert Gombos 6-3, 6-3.

The 21-year-old Australian captured his first ATP World Tour title in Marseille 12 months ago, defeating Marin Cilic in the final. Later in the year he added to his title haul at the BB&T Atlanta Open (d. Isner) and the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo (d. Goffin).

Kyrgios booked his spot in the last four at this ATP World Tour 250 tournament in just 58 minutes. The third seed fired 15 aces and lost just six points on serve in a dominant display. He goes on to face either Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or Gilles Simon, who meet in an all-French quarter-final clash.

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“I thought I served and returned really well today,” said Kyrgios. “All that matters is that I’m going out there and playing every point hard. I think I’m pretty aggressive on my returns, particularly here where I’m trying to get in the first big hit.”

This evening, top seed Gael Monfils is in action against Richard Gasquet, while #NextGenATP star Daniil Medvedev looks to upset fourth seed Lucas Pouille. There are five Frenchmen through to the quarter-finals. 

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World No. 1 Andy Murray and seven-time Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships titlist Roger Federer took part in a beach tennis match in front of the iconic Burj Al Arab at the Jumeirah Al Naseem hotel on Friday, ahead of the 25th edition of the ATP World Tour 500 tournament that begins on 27 February. Tournament Director Salah Tahlak was on hand to umpire.

“I’m looking forward to playing, especially on the anniversary of 25 years here in Dubai,” said Federer, who picked up his 18th Grand Slam championship crown at the Australian Open. “It’s nice to be part of a tournament celebrating something. I’ve had some great years here in Dubai. I wanted to be in good shape and ready for the conditions so I came early this year.

The players like this tournament so much, it’s well organised, and well run with good crowds. With the hotel and everything on site it’s so convenient. Today was a nice way to start the celebration of 25 years. Now, I can’t wait for the tournament to start.”

Murray, who lost to Federer in the 2012 Dubai final, added, “It was good fun today playing on the beach, I’ve never done that and the sun came out for us so that was a good start to the day. I enjoy coming to Dubai. I’ve played here a number of years. I feel refreshed and looking forward to competing again.”

Defending champion Stan Wawrinka, two-time runner-up Tomas Berdych and Gael Monfils will also be competing next week at the Aviation Club in Dubai.

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