By Canadian Press

Canadian Milos Raonic advances to semifinals at BNP Paribas Open

Mar 14, 2019 | 4:07 PM

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Canada’s Milos Raonic is heading to the semifinals at the BNP Paribas Open.

The No. 13 seed from Thornhill, Ont., beat lucky loser Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia 6-3, 6-4 in a quarterfinal on Thursday.

Raonic will face the winner of a match between No. 18 seed Gael Monfils of France and No. 7 seed Dominic Thiem of Austria in a semifinal.

The hard-serving Canadian saved all three break points against him on Thursday and converted on two of his three break-point opportunities.

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Raonic had 35 winners, 21 more than the 130th-ranked Kecmanovic.

Raonic has had success at this tournament, having made at least the quarterfinals in his last five appearances.

On the women’s side, Belinda Bencic beat Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to reach the semifinals, ensuring her return to the top 20 in the rankings.

Bencic was pushed to three sets Thursday for the first time in four matches at this tournament. She was coming off a straight-set upset of defending champion and top-ranked Naomi Osaka in the fourth round.

Bencic next plays the winner of Thursday’s match between No. 8 Angelique Kerber and Venus Williams.

Bencic improved to 18-3 this year. She won her third career title at Dubai last month and her first since 2015. The 22-year-old Swiss player missed five months in 2017 after wrist surgery.

Bianca Andreescu of Mississauga, Ont., advanced to the women’s semis on Wednesday. She’ll face No. 6 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine on Friday.

— with files from The Associated Press

The Canadian Press