ROME - Canadas Milos Raonic defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-6 (5), 6-4 on Thursday to reach the Italian Open quarterfinals. Raonic, the No. 8 seed from Thornhill, Ont., won five of the last six points in the first-set tiebreaker. He picked up a break in the second set en route to his first career victory over the 11th-seeded Frenchman. Tsonga outlasted Raonic in a marathon match at the London Olympics in 2012 and beat him again last year at Indian Wells. Raonic hit seven aces and saved five break point chances on the red clay courts at the Foro Italico. Hell make his fourth Masters 1000 Series quarterfinal appearance of the season Friday against Jeremy Chardy of France. Chardy, who upset Roger Federer of Switzerland in the second round, advanced with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Croatias Ivan Dodig. Raonic has yet to reach a semifinal this year. Also Thursday, Rafael Nadal was pushed to three sets for the second consecutive match before ultimately prevailing to set up a quarterfinal against Andy Murray. The top-ranked Nadal dropped behind a set and a break against Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, then won 11 of the final 12 games to win 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-1 on another windy day at the Foro Italico. "Get used to (it)," Nadal said of his recent struggles. "With the years thats the normal thing. Everybody suffers. Thats part of the sport." At 27, Nadal believed his best days were probably behind him. "At this age, (Bjorn) Borg was doing other things," said Nadal, a 13-time Grand Slam winner. "Its not possible to win for 10 years with easy scores and easy matches. At the same time, Im sure I can do much better than I am doing." Nadal was looking forward to facing Murray for the first time in more than two years. "I play against one of the top players in the world after two tough days," Nadal said. "If I play well Im going to have my chances, if not Im going to spend the weekend (at home) in Mallorca." Murray eliminated Jurgen Melzer of Austria 7-6 (1), 6-4 to celebrate his 27th birthday. In an upset, the seemingly ageless Tommy Haas beat third-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka 5-7, 6-2, 6-3. On the womens side, Maria Sharapovas 12-match winning streak — which included titles in Stuttgart and Madrid — ended with a 6-1, 6-4 loss to Ana Ivanovic. Showing no signs of trouble from the left thigh injury that forced her to withdraw from Madrid, defending champion Serena Williams cruised past fellow American Varvara Lepchenko 6-1, 6-2. Pushed for three hours by Gilles Simon to nearly midnight a day earlier, Nadal didnt generate the usual depth with his groundstrokes, and began to take control only when Youzhny started committing more unforced errors. "The conditions were very impossible," said Nadal, a seven-time Rome champion. "You always have to find the positive thing. I was able to play with the right motivation even if the feeling was not perfect." Nadal consistently ran around his backhand, a shot that also caused him concern in recent losses to David Ferrer and Nicolas Almagro in Monte Carlo and Barcelona, respectively. Of Nadals 29 winners, only two of them came with his backhand. Haas, the oldest player in the draw at 36, used his expertise to give Wawrinka trouble with heavy topspin. Haas last beat a top-10 player more than a year ago in Miami, where he took out then-No. 1 Novak Djokovic. "These things dont happen too often anymore, so when I take them Im really proud of them," the German said. He has been winning this week in Rome for the first time since he lost the 2002 final to Andre Agassi. Wawrinka cited a back injury that occurred in colder conditions during his opening win. "I couldnt move too well," he said. "Its really nothing serious. Its just painful and I need some rest — maybe a few days." Wawrinka has made a great start by winning the Australian Open and the Monte Carlo Masters but another early exit in last weeks Madrid Open leaves his form in question with the French Open starting in 10 days. Haas quarterfinal opponent will be Grigor Dimitrov, who at 22 is the youngest player in the top 20. Dimitrov rallied past sixth-seeded Tomas Berdych 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-2. Fifth-seeded David Ferrer beat Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 6-2, 6-3 and will meet either Novak Djokovic or Philipp Kohlschreiber, who were playing late. In womens play, second-seeded Li Na defeated Sam Stosur 6-3, 6-1 and will next meet Sara Errani of Italy, who kept the crowd content by beating Czech qualifier Petra Cetkovska 6-4, 7-6 (3). Also, third-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska eliminated Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 6-1, and will play 2007 and 2008 Rome champion Jelena Jankovic, who got by Flavia Pennetta 6-2, 6-3. Wholesale Yeezy .C. - NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick headlines this years electees into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. Cheap Yeezy . -- The Detroit Lions made it crystal clear to Golden Tate that he was their top target in free agency. https://www.wholesaleyeezyauthentic.com/. Cox started the season with San Francisco, but was released by the team on Nov. 12 before being signed by Seattle, where he appeared in two games and tallied three tackles before being released on Dec. Cheap Yeezy From China . Dragic was a game-time decision because of a sore right ankle that had kept him out of Wednesdays loss at Utah, but played all but the last 10 seconds of the second half in the first 40-point game for a Phoenix player since Amare Stoudemires 44 on March 19, 2010. yeezy black friday . The three Calgary natives will compete after the sport was skipped by the Vancouver Games in 2010 but later included on the program for Sochi, Russia. The fight to include womens ski jumping prior to Vancouver went to the courts only to have the Supreme Court of Canada rule against the athletes appeal in 2009.NEW YORK, N.Y. - Vladimir Tarasenko scored in the third round of the shootout, and the St. Louis Blues stretched their winning streak to five with a 4-3 victory over the New York Rangers on Monday night.Tarasenko, who had a goal and an assist in regulation, fired a shot past Cam Talbot to end the game and give the Blues their eighth win in their last nine visits to Madison Square Garden (8-0-1).The Rangers lost at home in a shootout for the second straight game, following a 1-0 defeat against Winnipeg on Saturday. They are 4-1-2 in their past seven games.Alexander Steen also scored in the shootout, and Patrik Berglund and Jay Bouwmeester added goals in regulation for the Blues, who lost a 2-1 lead in the third period before tying it at 3. Brian Elliott made 36 saves.Martin St. Louis scored the tying and go-ahead goals in the third for the Rangers, who also led 1-0 in the first period on Chris Kreiders third of the season. Talbot stopped 31 shots.The Rangers earned a point despite a depleted defence corps and a rare start by Talbot, who gave Henrik Lundqvist his second game off this season. On defence, the Rangers were missing captain Ryan McDonagh (separated shoulder), John Moore (suspension) and Kevin Klein (foot). New York was forced to use Michael Kostka and recent call-ups Conor Allen and Dylan McIlrath.The Blues took their first lead at 3:50 of the third when defenceman Barret Jackmans shot hit Rangers forward Chris Mueller and then bounded in off Berglund for his first of the season.Soon after, New York was somehow denied after Elliott got out of position. The Blues had four other players in the crease, including David Backes and Jaden Schwartz on the goal line blocking pucks.The Blues escaped that flurry, but just over a minute later, the Rangers tied it 2-2 on St. Louis second of the season. Carl Hagelin sent a behind-the-back pass from behind the net to St. Louis, who sneaked behind Elliott and scored inside the right poost at 6:28.ddddddddddddNew York went ahead at 13:17 when Rick Nash feathered a perfect pass across the Blues zone that eluded defenceman Alex Pietrangelo and landed on St. Louis stick for his second goal of the night.However, the Rangers lead lasted only 1:16 before Bouwmeesters rising snap shot beat Talbot.Lee Stempniak scored New Yorks lone goal in the shootout.The Blues outshot the Rangers 17-8 in the second and got even at 1 on Tarasenkos seventh goal of the season and sixth in four games.With St. Louis on its first power play, Tarasenko — the NHLs No. 1 star of last week — gathered the puck near centre ice and streaked into the New York end, eluding defenders seemingly with each stride. He got in on Talbot, quickly moved left to right, shifting from forehand to backhand, and reaching wide to tuck the puck inside the post at 7:18.Elliott earned his first assist of the season on that goal.After a sluggish start, the Rangers turned up the pressure on the Blues and locked things down defensively in the first.On their first power play, the Rangers used 19-year-old rookie Anthony Duclair at the right point, and the move paid off. New York dug the puck free along the right-wing boards in the St. Louis end back to Duclair at the blue line. He moved the puck to his left to Matt Hunwick, whose shot was deflected into the net by Kreider from the slot at 5:29.St. Louis had the early 3-2 edge in shots, but the Rangers finished with a 15-4 shots lead. They did it even with McIlrath serving a fighting major in the final five minutes of the period.NOTES: Blues C Paul Stastny (shoulder) missed his seventh straight game but took park in contact drills Monday morning for the first time since he was injured against Arizona on Oct. 18. RW T.J. Oshie (concussion) sat out his third straight. ... Rangers LW Mats Zuccarello was out because of an undisclosed injury. He was replaced by Ryan Malone, who cleared waivers earlier Monday. ' ' '