Milos Raonic is through to the quarter-final round in Monte Carlo, and with momentum on his side, will look to down Czech No. 1 Tomas Berdych in their fiftth career encounter. The Canadian leads the head-to-head series 3-1, including a win in their most recent meeting at the Paris Masters. This is also set to be their first ever clay court encounter, which only adds to the overall intrigue.

Faced with the difficult task of overcoming a Spaniard on clay, fourth seed Milos Raonic managed to overcome a tough second set and momentum shift to defeat Tommy Robredo in three sets. He struck 35 winners to close out the match 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in one hour and 40 minutes.

“Tommy can be tricky on any surface,” said Raonic. “He’s been having a great 12 months. I was fortunate to get through that match. It was a lot of up and downs, but through some improvisation and fighting hard I was able to win.

“It’s 10 months since I last played on clay and I’m still finding my way, but at least I know my objectives, how to reach my goals; it gives me a little bit of a jump start.”

The Canadian will next encounter Tomas Berdych, who performed well in his third round encounter against Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut. Unlike Raonic, Berdych was able to route his tricky opponent in straight sets 7-6(7), 6-4. He struck 41 winners, 12 aces and won 84% of his first service points to earn the victory in exactly the same amount of time as his upcoming opponent, one our and 40 minutes.

This marks the fifth time that these two competitors will meet on the professional tour, with Raonic leading the series 3-1. While Raonic has proven to be the better player on hard courts recently, it will be interesting to see if his advantage remains the same when the step out onto the red dust court in Monte Carlo.