Milos Raonic is through to his second straight BNP Paribas Open semi-final after a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Frenchman Gael Monfils on Thursday night. The No. 12 seed claimed his second match from as many meetings with the No. 13 seed this year, having also claimed the honours in their Australian Open quarter-final in January.

Neither player had lost a set en route to the quarter-finals and the big-serving Canadian ensured his run of straight-sets victories would continue until at least the semi-finals. He sent down seven aces and dropped just nine points on his first serve.

Raonic had his share of break point opportunities but only converted on three of the 13. It proved enough to advance in one hour and 30 minutes. The result denied Monfils the chance to become the first Frenchman to reach the semi-finals in Indian Wells since Guy Forget lost the 1991 final.

Raonic said a game plan against the unpredictable Frenchman required a certain amount of flexibility.

“I think you just sort of change your mentality a bit, but I don’t think the game plan for me changes,” Raonic said. “Maybe the side you approach to or what kind of stuff you expect, that’s about it.”

With the win, Raonic levelled the pair’s FedEx ATP Head2Head series at 2-2. He will take on No. 15 seed David Goffin for a place in the Indian Wells final. The Belgian leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 1-0.

“He’s playing well,” Raonic said of Goffin. “He’s taking the ball early. He’s trying to maybe not overpower but take away time from his opponents.

“You see that he’s trying to take time away and maybe getting guys to panic and not set up their swings. But I think when it comes to that kind of stuff I’m pretty good at getting things on my terms. If he wants to stay on the baseline I’m going to have to try to push him back.”

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Unseeded Spaniards Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez have denied Jamie Murray the chance to assume top spot in the Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings after defeating the Scot and Brazilian Bruno Soares 6-7(2), 7-6(2), 10-8 in the BNP Paribas Open quarter-finals on Thursday.

Murray needed to win just one more match to take over as No. 1 from Marcelo Melo but fell short in just under two hours. The Lopez pairing hit six aces and won 81 per cent of first-serve points against the No. 4 seeds, saving five of six break points to advance.

Marc Lopez is no stranger to success in Indian Wells, having claimed the doubles title twice before (2010, 2012), both times with Rafael Nadal. Teaming with another of his countrymen, he continued his run of form in the desert to book a semi-final showdown with defending champions Vasek Pospisil and Jack Sock.

The sixth seeds registered a 7-5, 6-3 result over Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany and Dominic Thiem of Austria. The Canadian-American duo was impressive on serve, claiming 87 per cent of first-serve points and 84 per cent on second serves in the one-hour, four-minute affair. They broke three times to close to within two wins of winning back-to-back BNP Paribas Open titles.

To watch the BNP Paribas Open online, visit TennisTV.com.

David Goffin just won’t take no for an answer. The industrious Belgian beat No. 10 seed Marin Cilic 7-6(4), 6-2 at the BNP Paribas Open on Thursday to reach his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final. Goffin saved 11 of 12 break points to advance in 97 minutes.

Goffin’s journey to the final four has been far from smooth. The No. 18 in the Emirates ATP Rankings needed to save match points against NextGen star France Tiafoe in the second round, then snapped a 14-match losing streak against Top 10 players in upsetting Stan Wawrinka 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(5) in the fourth round. The win over Cilic was his first straight-sets win at Indian Wells this year.

Cilic, who held four set points in the opening set, fell to 0-8 in quarter-final appearances at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events.

The New York Times’ Ben Rothenberg joked that he should take some credit for Marcelo Melo’s finish atop the Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings in 2015.

Last weekend, Rothenberg rejoined forces with the top-ranked doubles player, and confronted ATP Chief Player Officer Ross Hutchins and long-time tennis journalist Richard Evans for the second edition of the ATP World Tour Media Doubles Showdown.

Doubles stars and journalists teamed up on the practice courts of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, swapping partners as they competed for more than an hour under the direction of Wayne Bryan. In addition to Melo, journalists had the chance to play alongside John Peers, Fabrice Martin, Nicholas Monroe and coaches Daniel Vallverdu and Miles Maclagan. Colin Fleming also stopped by to watch the pro-am and spend time with the media.

Brandon Moglen of the Tennis Channel finished as a King of the Court last year on a team captained by Jean-Julien Rojer, and once again took first place as he and Maclagan defeated Cort Larson and Martin, 10-6, in the final. In the playoff for third place, Rothenberg and Hutchins defeated Rodrigo Azurmendi and Peers, 10-7.

“Having introduced this successfully last year, it was once again great to see the best doubles players in the world showcase their skills while interacting with the media in a different way than normal,” said ATP Chief Player Officer, Ross Hutchins. “I’m sure the media now further appreciates the skill it takes to be a successful doubles player and we look forward to having this event again in the future.”

ATP: Colin Fleming, Fabrice Martin, Marcelo Melo, Nicholas Monroe, John Peers; coaches Danny Vallverdu and Miles Maclagan; Ross Hutchins

Journalists: Brandon Moglen, Cort Larsen, Ben Rothenberg, Rodrigo Azurmendi, Andrej Antic, Ricky Dimon, Richard Evans, Jacque Fryklund, James LaRosa, Erwin Ong, Rene Stauffer, Kurt Streeter, Ros Satar, Kamakshi Tandon<

One of the all-time greats in doubles returned to the court this week in Irving as he shared the experience with his family.

Mark Knowles won an astounding 55 ATP World Tour doubles titles during his 20-year career and held the No. 1 doubles ranking on numerous occasions. The Bahamian lifted up three Grand Slam men’s doubles titles with Daniel Nestor (2002 Australian Open, 2004 US Open and 2007 French Open) and even won a Grand Slam mixed doubles title with Anna-Lena Groenefeld (2009 Wimbledon). He also represented the Bahamas in the Olympics on five different occasions before eventually concluding his illustrious career at the 2012 US Open.

But while he has no plans to return to the ATP World Tour, Knowles has made an annual tournament appearance each year in Texas. He played doubles each February at the $100,000 ATP Challenger Tour event in Dallas from 2013-2015 and teamed up with Benjamin Becker this week at the $125,000+H event in Irving.

“My wife is from the area, so we have a house here. And this tournament is at the Four Seasons (Resort and Club at Dallas Las Colinas), where I’m the touring pro. It’s basically my home club here in Dallas,” said Knowles. “Two of my good friends are running the tournament (Brent Haygarth and Zoltan Popp) and they’re guys that I hang out with a lot here. All the pieces were in place for a fun week.”

Since retiring from the tour, the one-time globetrotter has opted for a more quiet life in the Bahamas with his wife and three children. In addition to getting his license as a real estate agent, Knowles has worked on creating tennis initiatives in the Bahamas and has even found time to coach his son’s baseball and football teams.

“My youngest son, Brody (age seven), is starting to get into tennis now. This tournament is a nice opportunity because he was a little too young to have memories of when I was playing professionally, so it’s nice to give him a taste of being around other great players,” said Knowles. “It’s an opportunity for him to relate because he’s starting to get the tennis bug a little bit.”

Knowles praised the depth of the doubles field in Irving, which also includes two other Grand Slam men’s doubles champions in Leander Paes and Philipp Petzschner. Although he acknowledged not hitting the court as frequently as he’d like, the former world No. 1 said he still intended to put in a good showing this week.

“I still go out there and practise sometimes, but it’s mostly with my seven-year-old,” jokes Knowles. “I don’t practise frequently enough to realistically be where I was once was, so it’s basically for fun now. But at the end of the day, we’re all competitors. Once I walk onto the court, I’m not expecting to lose.”

Becker and Knowles ultimately lost their opening round match on Wednesday to Jason Jung and Jakob Sude, 6-3, 6-4. But if history is any indication, we’ll likely see Knowles competing again in the Dallas area next year.