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MASON, Ohio -- With a bothersome injury blunting his lethal serve, Canadas Milos Raonic lost his bid a second straight quarter-final appearance at a Masters 1000 event with a 7-6 (5), 6-4 loss to American John Isner Thursday at the Western & Southern Open. Coming off a trip to the finals in last weeks Rogers Cup, Raonic was treated for a pinched nerve in his neck after five games of the match, which featured an opening set lasting for almost one hour. After the on-court session, Raonic managed to carry on. Raonic admitted that his usual 210-225 kilometre-per-hour serving speed has been compromised in his recent matches due to the physical problem. "It made a few situations more difficult and it also relieved pressure on his return games," he said. "But I was able to do a lot of things well to compensate for that lack of serving ability." The loss was the second against Isner for the 12th seed from Thornhill, Ont. Raonic was also beaten by his North American rival in their only other meeting last summer in Toronto. Raonic ended a frustrating afternoon with a paltry four aces and lost his serve twice. Isner rained down 13 aces in victory. The world No. 10 will likely benefit from some rest after playing for much of the past 10 days with the US Open starting a week from Monday in New York. "I should be fine once the arm gets up to speed," Raonic said. "Im very optimistic going into the Open. "Im doing a lot of things well and getting a lot of confidence. I played great last week and played well this week." He said the shoulder issues came up early in the Rogers Cup week where he made the final against Rafael Nadal and reached a top 10 ranking for the first time. "Ill get in some training and concentrate on the physical and stay away from the tennis for a few days," te 22-year-old said. "Ill then get back onto the court as much as I can." Raonic lost the opening set in the tiebreaker between the two noted big servers, with Isner nailing it down with an ace. Isner secured a break in the penultimate game of the second set on a forehand winner to the empty court and sealed victory a point later with a service winner after 96 minutes. Elsewhere, Roger Federer overcome a rough start and emerged from his string of subpar showings since Wimbledon. He beat Tommy Haas 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 to advance to the quarter-finals. The fifth-seeded Swiss star has been struggling to get his game back in shape since he was upset at Wimbledon by a player ranked 116th in the world. Hes switched rackets and been limited by a sore back. Hes won in Cincinnati an unprecedented five times, including last year. Also Thursday, No. 1 Novak Djokovic needed only 50 minutes to beat qualifier David Goffin, 6-2, 6-0, leaving him on track for a little ATP history. Hes lost in the finals four times at Cincinnati, the only Masters series event he has yet to win. A victory would make him the first player to win all nine Masters. "I played four times finals, so its been one of the tournaments where Ive performed well," Djokovic said. "Never managed to make the final step, and hopefully this year I can do so. "I have an extra motivation and an opportunity to make history in this tournament, so Im very inspired to play well day after day." It appeared Federer wasnt long for the tournament after a stunningly bad start against Haas. The 35-year-old Haas needed only 31 minutes to win the first set and was up 4-2 in the second before Federer started to approach the net, hitting shots with confidence and taking control. He pumped his right fist after a backhand return hugged the line to set up a break point that put him up 5-3 in the final set, and again when he finished it off -- one of his few satisfying moments in months. Earlier Thursday, seventh-seeded Juan Martin del Potro earned a berth in the quarter-finals, holding off 27th-ranked Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 6-4, 1-6, 6-4. Russian qualifier Dmitry Tursunov pulled off another upset, beating third-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer 6-2, 6-4. The 44th-ranked Tursunov never lost his serve while reaching the quarter-finals for the first time in six appearances at the event. Also reaching the quarter-finals were second-seeded Andy Murray and sixth-seeded Tomas Berdych. Fourth-seeded Rafael Nadal beat Grigor Dimitrov 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 in a two-hour evening match and will play Federer in the quarter-finals Friday night. Nadal has overcome an injured left knee that wiped out the end of last season and a stomach virus that affected him early this year, taking a career-best mark of 50-3 into the quarter-finals. On the womens side, second-seeded Victoria Azarenka, fourth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska, fifth-seeded Li Na, 10th-seeded Caroline Wozniacki and 14th-seeded Jelena Jankovic advanced to the quarter-finals. Azarenka withdrew from last weeks Rogers Cup in Toronto with a lower back injury. The previous week, she lost to Samantha Stosur in the finals of the Southern California Open. Azarenka reached the quarter-finals for the first time in three appearances at the event. Last year, Djokovic lost in the finals to Federer. It was a record fifth win in Cincinnati for the 32-year-old Swiss star, who is hoping to get his game straightened out on the fast, blue centre court that has always seemed to favour him. Federer was beaten in the second round at Wimbledon by Sergiy Stakhovsky, his earliest exit from a Grand Slam event since 2003. That ended Federers streak of reaching the quarter-finals in 36 straight major tournaments. The improbable upsets were just starting. Federer lost to a 114th-ranked qualifier in the semifinals at Hamburg and was beaten by a 55th-ranked player in his opening match at Gstaad, Switzerland. There were reasons that figured in the losses: He was experimenting with a larger racket and his back was bothering him. He skipped Montreal last week to get ready for Cincinnati, hoping a good showing this week would get him ready for the U.S. Open. Toronto Blue Jays Gear . LOUIS -- St. Stitched Blue Jays Jerseys . Toronto has dropped games to Indiana and Miami since a five-game winning streak and closed out a three-game road trip at 1-2. https://www.cheapbluejays.com/ . Bryant, who signed a five-year, $34 million contract as a free agent with Cleveland in March, reported symptoms on Monday morning, a team spokesman said. Toronto Blue Jays Store .5 seconds to play in the game, Kevin Love never stopped believing that they would come out of there with a win. Blue Jays Jerseys 2019 . Q: Team Canada announces their Olympic roster three weeks from today. Who is general manager Steve Yzerman watching? LeBrun: Over the last 48 hours, hes taken in the home-and-home between the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche with Jamie Benn and Matt Duchene being the obvious targets.SONOMA, Calif. -- As Jamie McMurray turned a corner on the season with a string of solid finishes, he picked Sonoma Raceway as an upcoming track he was looking forward to racing. It seemed like a strange selection considering McMurray has just one top-10 finish at Sonoma in 10 career starts. But he showed his comfort level on the 1.99-mile road course Saturday with a surprise pole-winning run. He topped Marcos Ambrose, a race favourite, with a lap at 94.986 mph. "I felt like Ive always raced really well here," McMurray said of choosing Sonoma as a place he thought he could win this year. "For me, the last restarts have really got me. When you have a restart at this track, guys go from top-five to 30th in about 20 seconds. It can be a track that if you have a caution at the end, you can lose a lot." It was McMurrays ninth career Sprint Cup pole, but first of the year. He also won the pole at Sonoma in 2007. Ambrose wound up second with a lap at 94.924 in NASCARs first use of the group qualifying format. Both Ambrose and McMurray were together in the final group, and Ambrose initially had the pole position. But McMurray snatched it away, and Ambrose made a second attempt to grab it back but came up just short. "The motor quit running coming to the green flag, so I lost all of my momentum coming to the green flag," Ambrose said. "I thought about just bailing out of that lap and trying to roll around for a second lap, but I wasnt sure about engine temperatures and the tires go away so fast. I didnt know if I had already stressed them out and if I could have made up time, so I just went for it." Its not the first engine issue Ambrose has had at Sonoma: He was dominating the race in 2010 and leading under caution when he turned his engine off and lost the race. So he was furious when an engine problem spoiled what he thought would be a pole-winning run for Sundays race. "I pretty much lost my mind there and was really mad and just had to get my composure back to finish the lap off," he said. "It was good enough for the front row, so Im proud of that but disappointed obviously that we didnt get the pole position." Carl Edwards qualified third and was followed by teammate Greg Biffle as Ford drivers took three of the first four spots. Although it was Edwards best qualifying effort at Sonoma, he had thought the new format meant hed get more laps in and have a shot at the pole. "The qualifying format was supposed to be easier on the drivers because we were supposed to get a couple of laps, but my crew chief went ahead and taped the grille off and said that wed just get one lap, so I was really happy with the lap," Edwards said.dddddddddddd "I made a couple of little mistakes. I think I could have done better, but, still, its the best position Ive had starting here and to be anywhere near Marcos Ambrose in qualifying at a road race is an honour for me." Defending race winner Clint Bowyer qualified fifth and was followed by Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch and Joey Logano. Kyle Busch was ninth, and Jeff Gordon rounded out the top 10. NASCAR had previously used group qualifying only in the Nationwide Series but tried it Saturday instead of traditional single-car runs. The drivers were split into eight groups of five or six cars based on practice speeds from Friday, and NASCAR sent them onto the track five seconds apart. The drivers had five minutes to post a fast lap. It was immediately interesting as Victor Cruz Jr., driving for Tommy Baldwin Racing, ran off course and into a barrier to stop the first groups session. "Rookie mistake," he said. There was no mistake for McMurray, who enjoyed watching the qualifying format as he waited for his turn to run. "It was cool how people would bump each other off," he said. When he went out in the final group, he was smooth and steady in his Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet and didnt push too hard. "I was like, Im just going to go out and take what this car will give me and not push it to the very edge," he said. "I drove at about 95 per cent." McMurray teammate Juan Pablo Montoya qualified 13th. Jacques Villeneuve, in the Phoenix Racing entry Kurt Busch drove to a third-place finish last year, qualified 22nd. "It just wasnt quick enough," he said. "We improved the car overnight and I was discovering it and I just didnt drive aggressive enough on the first lap, so there was still a little bit of time, but at least my car was a lot better." Danica Patrick, who has struggled to find speed all weekend and was expected to be strong Sunday, qualified a disappointing 31st. "We picked up from practice. It was loose, especially in the faster part of the course," Patrick said. "But we improved from yesterday and the GoDaddy guys have worked really hard this weekend. Hopefully we have a good day on Sunday." ' ' '