Top seed Novak Djokovic survived a second-set scare to hold off inspired veteran Radek Stepanek in the Rogers Cup third round on Thursday night. The three-time champion denied the 37-year-old Czech, the oldest man in the draw, 6-2, 6-4 to book a quarter-final showdown with Stepanek’s countryman and doubles partner, Tomas Berdych.

Djokovic claimed 79 per cent of first-serve points in the one-hour, 28-minute display breaking twice to take the opening set before a scrambling Stepanek produced the shot of the match to bring up a break point in the opening game of the second.

Seemingly out of the point, the Czech, who had come through qualifying to reach the third round, skidded wide to scoop a backhand crosscourt before angling a forehand pass on the run out of reach of the Serbian. Working the Toronto crowd into a frenzy, he broke and held for 2-0 before the world No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings managed to level.

Djokovic sealed the result with a fourth break of serve to extend his FedEx ATP Head2Head record against Stepanek to 12-1. He will carry en equally imposing 24-2 record into his quarter-final clash with fifth-seeded Berdych, who earlier outlasted American qualifier Ryan Harrison 6-4, 6-7(2), 6-4.

It marks Berdych’s fourth trip to the Rogers Cup quarter-finals, though he has yet to reach the semi-finals. The closest he came was a third-set tie-break defeat to Roger Federer in the 2010 quarter-finals. He also reached the last eight in 2006 and 2011.

The Czech gave himself another chance to break through with the win over Harrison, a player who produced some of his best tennis in years this week to reach the third round, including a three-set win over ninth seed John Isner in the second round.

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Berdych broke the 24 year old at 5-4 in the first set and had a match point on Harrison’s serve at 6-5 in the second set. But the World No. 144 erased it and dominated the tie-break to force a third set. At 1-all, Berdych broke Harrison and later erased the lone break point he’d face to move into the last eight.

Talk About Angles: Watch Harrison Hot Shot

The 30 year old won 88 per cent of his first-serve points (51/55) and recorded 19 aces. Harrison won consecutive matches on the ATP World Tour for the second week in a row. He also qualified and reached the third round in Washington before falling to semi-finalist Steve Johnson.

Less than a week after clinching his fifth ATP World Tour title on the clay of Gstaad, World No. 18 Feliciano Lopez was back on home soil, paying a visit to the ATP Challenger Tour event in Segovia.

The 2009 champion in Segovia, Lopez returned to the site of his first Challenger title on Thursday. The nearby Toledo native hit the hard courts to practise with coach José Clavet and Japanese teenager Akira Santillan. Santillan, 19, is into the quarter-finals in just his second ATP Challenger Tour main draw. 

Lopez hit with Santillan for an hour, in preparation for the North American hard-court swing.

“He is a young player that I had heard about for many years. It’s the first time that we played, but I can see clearly that he has great talent and a lot of promise,” said Lopez. “He is young, but has a lot of variety in his game and a good serve. To play tennis these days, that’s important.”

Santillan relished the experience of hitting with a player inside the Top 20 of the Emirates ATP Rankings, calling it “a great practice” and “an amazing experience for me.”

Santillan will face Italy’s Luca Vanni in the Segovia quarter-finals on Friday. Lopez, meanwhile, looks to extend his strong run of form when he returns to the ATP World Tour in two weeks in Los Cabos.

Gael Monfils continued his sizzling hard-court season on Thursday with a 7-6(5), 2-6, 6-4 win against Belgian David Goffin at the Rogers Cup in Toronto. The Frenchman has now won eight matches in a row, dating back to his championship run last week at the ATP World Tour 500 event in Washington, D.C., which was Monfils’ biggest title yet.

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The 29 year old will look to make it nine straight victories against home favourite and fourth seed Milos Raonic or American qualifier Jared Donaldson. The two play their third-round match later Thursday on Centre Court.

Monfils, No. 10 seed, matched his best run in Canada by knocking off seventh seed Goffin. Monfils fell behind 4/0 in the first-set tiebreak but won seven of the next eight points to grab a one-set lead. Goffin stormed back in the second set, though, and looked to be on his way to taking the third set when he had a break point at 4-4. But Monfils erased it and held, and on his second match point, Goffin slapped a backhand that caught the net cord and bounced back.

Monfils, No. 14 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, last reached the quarter-finals in Canada in 2011 (l. to Djokovic).