Djokovic among top 5 seeds into Rogers Cup quarterfinals

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia headlined the top seeded players that advanced to quarterfinals on Thursday, the fourth day of action in Rogers Cup Main Draw tournament at Aviva Centre in Toronto.

Djokovic defeated 37-year-old Czech opponent Radek Stepanek in straight sets (6-2, 6-4) to reach the quarters of Rogers Cup in nine of the last ten times since making his tournament debut in 2007.

The only year where he did not advanced to the round of the final eight was 2014 when he was knocked out by eventual winner, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the third round.

The remaining top five seeds all advanced. No. 2 Stan Wawrinka (7-6, 6-2), No. 3 Kei Nishikori (6-3, 6-4) and No. 4 Milos Raonic (6-2, 6-3) all won in straight sets while No. 5 Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic needed three sets to get by Ryan Harrison, his opponent from America.

The lone upset of the night occurred when South African Kevin Anderson ousted No. 12 seed Bernard Tomic of Australia in three sets 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

Of the eight remaining players in the tournament, six of them are top-10 seeds, with No. 10 Gael Monfils of France being the only seeded player to not receive a first-round bye.

Anderson and Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov are the remaining unseeded players. The World No. 34 ranked Anderson will take on Wawrinka in the quarters Friday and while No. 40 Dimitrov will face Nishikori.

Should the top seeds come out of the top in the quarters, the tournament will set up for interesting matchups on Saturday as Djokovic would face Raonic and Wawrinka would face Nishikori.

Djokovic is looking to become the second four-time winner of the tournament and trail only Ivan Lendl's record of six titles. Meanwhile, Wawrinka, Nishikori and Raonic are looking to capture their first Rogers Cup title.

Raonic, a native of nearby Thornhill, Ontario, finished runner-up in 2013 and is looking to become the first Canadian in the modern era to claim the title. Endit